Loop's new recycling program hopes to eliminate waste altogether.TERRACYCLE
Some of the biggest consumer brands are trying out a new way to repurpose packaging. It’s a modern take on an old school model: think of milkmen picking up used milk bottles or recycling glass bottle to get the deposit back.
Last week at Davos, TerraCycle, a US-based waste management company, debuted a new model of recycling, called the Loop, working with global brands like Unilever, P&G, The Clorox Company, Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca Cola European Partners, Danone, and The Body Shop.
It does just as the name suggests: keep “looping” the packaging back to the brand for a refill, instead of throwing it in the bin after just one use. This could be the beginnings of an e-commerce circular shopping system.
Alan Jope, CEO of Unilever, said: “We want to put an end to the current ‘take-make-dispose’ culture and are committed to taking big steps towards designing our products for re-use. We’re proud to be a founding partner of Loop, which will deliver our much-loved brands in packaging which is truly circular by design.”
TerraCycle has been on the business of trash for a decade, recycling waste, and helping brands figure out more eco-friendly alternatives. Despite their successes, Loop required reimagining the current system altogether.
“It took quite a bit of effort to get the founding partners on board: PG, Unilever, Nestle, Mars and PepsiCo as the model requires a major investment of money, time and other resources,” says Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle. “Once these companies joined they set the stage and since then it has been surprisingly easy to bring partners on board.”
Reusable containers with glass and metal would substitute cheap disposable packaging.TERRACYCLE
He admits that it’s more complicated and costly option right now for brands. But at scale, the cost can drop. Same applies for retail partners like Carrefour and Tesco who were first hesitant to sign, but have been easier to convict after Carrefour pioneered the way, being the first grocery retailer to test out Loop.
Laurent Vallée, General Secretary of Carrefour Group, said: “Loop is a disruptive solution led by a visionary entrepreneur. Carrefour has a strong commitment to eliminating waste and plastic. It was a natural fit for Carrefour to commit to this great project, thus becoming the first player in the retail space to join Loop. We believe our clients are increasingly concerned with unnecessary waste and we expect them to embrace this new solution. We hope other international manufacturers and retailers will join us to adopt new standards and fight waste.”
For customers, the prices for Loop products will be comparable to what they would be normally in disposable packaging. However, customers do have to pay a refundable deposit for the durable containers. In the US, this will vary from $0.25 to $10. This is fully refunded when the empty packaging is picked up, no matter what condition it is returned in, Szaky clarifies.
Rather than build a new brand centered around packaging, Loop wants companies and consumers to pay closer attention to the economics of packaging: the current model incentives the cheapest options. Since compostable packaging is still more expensive, big global brands have been slow to adopt.
“The good news is that in Loop you don’t have to trust our products, as they are already the best brands in the world from Tide to Haagen Dazs, and you don’t have to trust us as a retailer. All you have to do is switch from disposable to durable, which gives you the following profound benefits,” he adds.
With some of this new packaging, there may be some added bonuses: for instance, the metal containers keep ice cream frozen longer and wet wipes, well, wetter. Plus, there’s the obvious bonus of less trash to take out every week. By working with UPS and Suez, TerraCycle can use the same routes UPS does daily to deliver packages to pick up the waste. So no drops to recycling units or additional steps for customers.
The idea was conceived at the World Economic Forum; hence it’s debut there this year. Szaky used the convening of these global brands at this annual event to design the system.
To expand on this vision, Szaky has been raising capital through crowdfunding: over $3 million have been raised thus far. Szaky says they’re also raising capital specifically for Loop, which is owned by TerraCycle Global, and requires a fair amount of capital upfront for brands to innovative new types of packaging and a process of refillng.
The pilots with these global brands will unravel this spring and it’s yet to be determined if customers are as eager as brands to solve the waste problem.
© Loop (used with permission)
If the Loop pilot project succeeds, store shelves could soon look a lot different than they do now.
Something major happened last week. On Thursday in Davos, Switzerland, 25 of the world's biggest brands announced that they will soon offer products in refillable, reusable containers. Items such as Tropicana orange juice, Axe and Dove deodorants, Tide laundry detergent, Quaker cereal, and Häagen-Dazs ice cream, among others, will be available in glass or stainless steel containers, instead of single-use disposable packaging.
The project is called Loop and it is the result of a partnership between these brands and TerraCycle, a waste management company that first pitched the idea to these brands a year ago at Davos. Brands who liked it, or saw the wisdom in sprucing up their environmental credibility, pay to be part of the project and commit to designing reusable packaging.
Loop will start as a pilot project, launching in May 2019 for 5,000 shoppers in New York and Paris who sign up for it in advance. It will expand to London at the end of the year and spread to Toronto, Tokyo, and San Francisco in 2020. If it is successful, more partners could join Loop and products would eventually become available on store shelves.
© Loop (used with permission)
It works similarly to Amazon in that customers use a retail website to order goods; they must also put up a fully refundable deposit for the reusable packaging. The items are delivered to their doorstep in a reusable tote – a modern take on the old-fashioned milkman. Once the products are used up, the empty containers are returned to the tote and collected by a UPS driver. They do not need to be cleaned and, even if the containers are banged up, the deposit is issued in full. Customers only lose money if they fail to make a return.
From CNN's report on Loop,
"[TerraCycle CEO] Tom Szaky acknowledged that it’s a lot to ask people to use yet another retail website. He hopes that Loop will eventually be integrated into existing online shops, including Amazon. 'We’re not trying to harm or cannibalize retailers,' Szaky said. 'We’re trying to offer a plug-in that could make them better.'"
© Loop (used with permission)
This is an incredible step forward.
These brands have enormous reach and influence in the consumer sphere, which puts them in a uniquely powerful position to effect real change. They are not perfect, of course. In the followup to the Loop announcement there has been some criticism about their less-than-perfect track records on other environmental issues, such as palm oil and animal testing, but I think that's beside the point. It is impossible to tackle everything at the same time.
Plastic pollution is one thing that has captured the public interest of late and it poses a potential PR crisis for these brands if they don't act quickly. We should celebrate the steps that they are taking, which are more progressive than anything else I've seen so far.
© Loop (used with permission) – Even Pampers diapers can be purchased in a refillable container, which TerraCycle says eliminates the need for a Diaper Genie. They'll even deal with the waste inside.
Loop's future will depend on how the trial goes, but it looks promising. In the words of Bridget Croke, leader of external affairs for Closed Loop Partners, a group that invests in recycling technologies and sustainable consumer goods (and is unconnected to Loop), "If there's ever a time that these new models can succeed, it's now."
Meanwhile, the recycling industry is broken, a "failing industry," and people are asking for reusable packaging. The interest is real. From CNN:
"Small dairies throughout the country are already reviving the milkman by offering delivery services... Refillable beer growlers are staging a comeback, with Whole Foods and Kroger offering in-store beer taps. Startups are trying to help people refill reusable soap containers at home, and millions of consumers are already refilling SodaStream bottles in their kitchens."
I think we're catching a glimpse of a future that looks more hopeful and exciting than it has in a long time. Visit Loop for more information.
| Reusable shampoo bottles (Photo: TerraCycle) |