Loop, the zero-waste, refillable packaging delivery service, has announced that it is expanding nationally in the US this summer and coming soon to the UK, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Terracycle, which runs the service, has partnered with Kroger and Walgreens in the US, Loblaw in Canada, Tesco in the UK, and Carrefour in France. Terracycle piloted the Loop service in New York and Paris and later expanded to a few regions along the US east coast. Consumers order products from over 200 brands, including products from major international consumer goods companies such as Unilever, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, and Procter & Gamble. Customers place orders online and receive it in a reusable Loop tote, with all of the products within coming in refillable packaging. Goods range from pantry items, perishables, home goods, and personal care products. Once finished, users request a pickup for empties, which is then picked up. Your empty containers go back to Terracycle, where they are then cleaned, sanitized, and refilled for the next customer. The announcement comes as consumers flock to grocery delivery services from companies such as Instacart and Amazon over fears of contracting COVID-19 and being in the vicinity of possibly contagious shoppers in-store. While delivery services provide relief from possible contact with coronavirus, Loop is the only service that offers zero-waste packaging. Loop is currently inviting interested consumers to sign up on their waiting list.

Sustainability efforts for beauty companies may cost more in the short term, but often pay out over time. Beauty brands that want to be part of TerraCycle’s Loop program must develop durable packaging that can be reused at least 10 times. It costs more for businesses upfront, but has the potential to help brands reduce their packaging costs over the long term. It’s one example of the return on investment for sustainability — Ren, Pantene, Melanin Essentials, Love, Beauty and Planet, Soapply, Plaine and The Body Shop are among the brands working with and selling through the Loop operation. “Manufacturers are hitting parity on price and sustainability anywhere from two to three uses sometimes,” said Benjamin Weir, Loop’s director of business development and sales innovation. “We’re pushing the system to be as durable and as reusable as possible.” For Procter & Gamble, which has invested in Loop, the cost of making Loop-approved packaging is actually more expensive — but the business views it as an investment in learning. “While ROI is definitely something we are getting in certain pockets of our business, it is not the sole criteria for learning in this space, particularly with some of the pilots we are running,” said Anitra Marsh, associate director of global sustainability and brand communications at P&G Beauty. Marsh was referencing Loop, as well as Olay Whips refills, which launched in the fall. “We have to learn before we can bring things to scale.” Another P&G pilot launches Monday: The business is testing paper board tube packaging for deodorant, available exclusively at Walmart. “If you’re looking at return on investment, sustainability initiatives are the long game. There are no short wins with sustainability,” said Sarah Jindal, Mintel’s senior innovation and insights analyst for beauty and personal care. She called Loop’s efforts “a great example of that initial upfront investment that pays in bucketloads,” and said renewable energy is another key example. “At some point, once you’ve made that initial investment, you no longer have an electric bill that you’re paying to someone else,” she said. P&G, for example, has saved more than half-a-billion dollars after years of energy conservation programs across the company, said Kelly Vanasse, chief communications officer for P&G beauty and grooming. “That’s one example — the work we’re doing on zero waste to landfill, it’s the same thing.…The more we continue to realize those successes, it just creates a virtuous circle.” Jindal stressed that the timing of returns from sustainability initiatives can vary. “Returns will come in many different forms at many different levels at many different time points,” Jindal said. Unilever, for example, has started to see increasing sales momentum from “sustainable living brands.” Sustainable living brands grew 69 percent faster than the rest of the business in 2018, compared with 46 percent faster in 2017, the company said. Biossance, the skin-care line born out of biotech operation Amyris, has worked to build up its own virtuous circle — a sustainable supply chain in order to offer Amyris-produced squalane to the broader beauty market at “desirable price points,” said president Catherine Gore. “The promised land is really connecting sustainable ingredients, sustainable thinking, sustainable manufacturing and sustainable packaging with the cost effective-nature of that. We’ll really hit our sweet spot when all of the brands can afford to make these types of changes.” Biossance’s key sustainability initiatives revolve around sustainable sugarcane in Brazil. The company makes its own squalane with that sugarcane, versus harvesting from sharks. Sugarcane stalks are used for boxes, and gas off-put is used to power the plant. “All of that has been optimized so we can offer squalane by the ton to consumers and brands worldwide at a much more desirable price point than [killing sharks],” Gore said. “The whole idea is to keep the mission first, and in order for that to be accessible, it has to be at the right price point.” There’s also a softer side to the ROI equation. As sustainability permeates consumer consciousness, companies and brands that have taken steps in earth-friendly directions expect to see dividends coming in the form of consumer loyalty. “The concept of brand loyalty…has kind of flown out the window, but this view on sustainability — because it is becoming so important to the consumer, and it is so visible to the consumer — that becomes one of those really important parts of, ‘do I want to buy from this brand, or do I want to buy from that brand?” said Jindal. “That loyal relationship becomes really important in the fragmented world we’re living in where you’ve got new brands popping up almost every single day,” Jindal said. Right now, consumers are at the stage where they notice obvious things, Jindal said, like packaging. But as beauty companies delve deeper into sustainability and talk openly about their initiatives, consumer expectations are likely to evolve. “The more prevalent that information becomes, it becomes that much more important to a wider range of consumers,” Jindal said. “They’ll look at [company practices] and say, ‘you know what, I don’t agree with the practices of that company, so I won’t buy from them anymore.’ It’s as simple as that, to flip that switch, because there are so many brands out there they can choose from.” For Biossance, sustainability is a key part of customer retention. “There’s a large community that’s very close to our shark-saving initiative,” Gore said. The company estimates that by producing squalane, it saves two million sharks per year. That, combined with Environmental Working Group certification and other commitments, like zero waste by 2025, compostable boxes and going carbon neutral in 2020, keep customers coming back. “As we share those stories, it holistically brings a very dedicated community together that believes in the sustainability, wants to put their purchase power toward that, and trusts in the brand,” Gore said. P&G also sees customers caring more about sustainability. “When we have products consumers love, they’re like, ‘OK, I love your product — now help me love your product even more. What are you doing from a sustainability perspective?’ Everyone wants to do the right thing…today, doing the right thing is being more sustainable,” Vanasse said.

"There are no short wins with sustainability."

Sustainability efforts for beauty companies may cost more in the short term, but often pay out over time. Beauty brands that want to be part of TerraCycle’s Loop program must develop durable packaging that can be reused at least 10 times. It costs more for businesses upfront, but has the potential to help brands reduce their packaging costs over the long term. It’s one example of the return on investment for sustainability — Ren, Pantene, Melanin Essentials, Love, Beauty and Planet, Soapply, Plaine and The Body Shop are among the brands working with and selling through the Loop operation. “Manufacturers are hitting parity on price and sustainability anywhere from two to three uses sometimes,” said Benjamin Weir, Loop’s director of business development and sales innovation. “We’re pushing the system to be as durable and as reusable as possible.” For Procter & Gamble, which has invested in Loop, the cost of making Loop-approved packaging is actually more expensive — but the business views it as an investment in learning. “While ROI is definitely something we are getting in certain pockets of our business, it is not the sole criteria for learning in this space, particularly with some of the pilots we are running,” said Anitra Marsh, associate director of global sustainability and brand communications at P&G Beauty. Marsh was referencing Loop, as well as Olay Whips refills, which launched in the fall. “We have to learn before we can bring things to scale.” Another P&G pilot launches Monday: The business is testing paper board tube packaging for deodorant, available exclusively at Walmart. “If you’re looking at return on investment, sustainability initiatives are the long game. There are no short wins with sustainability,” said Sarah Jindal, Mintel’s senior innovation and insights analyst for beauty and personal care. She called Loop’s efforts “a great example of that initial upfront investment that pays in bucketloads,” and said renewable energy is another key example. “At some point, once you’ve made that initial investment, you no longer have an electric bill that you’re paying to someone else,” she said. P&G, for example, has saved more than half-a-billion dollars after years of energy conservation programs across the company, said Kelly Vanasse, chief communications officer for P&G beauty and grooming. “That’s one example — the work we’re doing on zero waste to landfill, it’s the same thing.…The more we continue to realize those successes, it just creates a virtuous circle.” Jindal stressed that the timing of returns from sustainability initiatives can vary. “Returns will come in many different forms at many different levels at many different time points,” Jindal said. Unilever, for example, has started to see increasing sales momentum from “sustainable living brands.” Sustainable living brands grew 69 percent faster than the rest of the business in 2018, compared with 46 percent faster in 2017, the company said. Biossance, the skin-care line born out of biotech operation Amyris, has worked to build up its own virtuous circle — a sustainable supply chain in order to offer Amyris-produced squalane to the broader beauty market at “desirable price points,” said president Catherine Gore. “The promised land is really connecting sustainable ingredients, sustainable thinking, sustainable manufacturing and sustainable packaging with the cost effective-nature of that. We’ll really hit our sweet spot when all of the brands can afford to make these types of changes.” Biossance’s key sustainability initiatives revolve around sustainable sugarcane in Brazil. The company makes its own squalane with that sugarcane, versus harvesting from sharks. Sugarcane stalks are used for boxes, and gas off-put is used to power the plant. “All of that has been optimized so we can offer squalane by the ton to consumers and brands worldwide at a much more desirable price point than [killing sharks],” Gore said. “The whole idea is to keep the mission first, and in order for that to be accessible, it has to be at the right price point.” There’s also a softer side to the ROI equation. As sustainability permeates consumer consciousness, companies and brands that have taken steps in earth-friendly directions expect to see dividends coming in the form of consumer loyalty. “The concept of brand loyalty…has kind of flown out the window, but this view on sustainability — because it is becoming so important to the consumer, and it is so visible to the consumer — that becomes one of those really important parts of, ‘do I want to buy from this brand, or do I want to buy from that brand?” said Jindal. “That loyal relationship becomes really important in the fragmented world we’re living in where you’ve got new brands popping up almost every single day,” Jindal said. Right now, consumers are at the stage where they notice obvious things, Jindal said, like packaging. But as beauty companies delve deeper into sustainability and talk openly about their initiatives, consumer expectations are likely to evolve. “The more prevalent that information becomes, it becomes that much more important to a wider range of consumers,” Jindal said. “They’ll look at [company practices] and say, ‘you know what, I don’t agree with the practices of that company, so I won’t buy from them anymore.’ It’s as simple as that, to flip that switch, because there are so many brands out there they can choose from.” For Biossance, sustainability is a key part of customer retention. “There’s a large community that’s very close to our shark-saving initiative,” Gore said. The company estimates that by producing squalane, it saves two million sharks per year. That, combined with Environmental Working Group certification and other commitments, like zero waste by 2025, compostable boxes and going carbon neutral in 2020, keep customers coming back. “As we share those stories, it holistically brings a very dedicated community together that believes in the sustainability, wants to put their purchase power toward that, and trusts in the brand,” Gore said. P&G also sees customers caring more about sustainability. “When we have products consumers love, they’re like, ‘OK, I love your product — now help me love your product even more. What are you doing from a sustainability perspective?’ Everyone wants to do the right thing…today, doing the right thing is being more sustainable,” Vanasse said.

Scary fact #1: We dump around 2.12 billion tons of waste every year. Scary fact #2: As it stands, 75 percent of waste—including beauty products—in the U.S. is recyclable, yet only 30 percent is actually being recycled, according to the EPA. Unfortunately, your beauty routine has a major environmental impact, thanks to the overwhelming consumption of plastic and ingredients that may not be eco-friendly. Although it’s important to note that being sustainable is more than just a trend—it's the right thing to do all year long—with Earth Day coming around, there’s no better time to give your beauty routine an eco-friendly makeover. Here are five mistakes you’re probably making right now, and the appropriate solutions to fix them.

You’re not recycling your empties.

  Let’s kick it off with the most egregious beauty sin: not recycling your empties. Throwing your beauty products into the trash is a small move that has big consequences for our landmines and oceans.   The solution: Get yourself a dual compartment bin ($65; homedepot.com), that has a section for waste and another for recyclables. That way, when you go to throw any trash away, you’ll be reminded to recycle whenever possible.   If you don’t have a go-to source for dropping off your recyclables, beauty brands like Unilever have partnered up with Terracycle to collect hard-to-recycle items from around the world and convert them into consumer products. Not only will they pay for all shipping costs, they’ll also make a donation to charity for each brigade collection they receive.   Also, keep an eye out for beauty brands that offer recycling options in-house. L’Occitane has a great initiative where you can take any full-sized product from any brand to the store and it will give you 10 percent off any new full-sized product you buy that day. Origins allows you to bring back any empty Origins containers to the counter and the brand will ensure they are recycled. And Back to MAC is a program that gifts shoppers a free lipstick once they have returned six full-size empties to the store.  

2You’re buying from unsustainable brands.

  The beauty world is full of murky waters, especially when it comes to product sourcing. From vaguely worded promises to unclear labeling systems, brands that tout “cruelty-free” can have some misleading fine print.   The solution: Do your research! Ensure the brand is truly cruelty-free and against animal testing. The leaping bunny symbol is a guarantee that none of the products have been tested on animals. Sephora also has a green checkmark indicating products that are free of certain questionable and unwanted ingredients. Put down any product that contains phthalates, mercury, toluene, lead, or formaldehyde, as these chemicals are considered to be some of the most damaging to the planet.   When you’re shopping, look for sustainable beauty brands that have thoughtful packaging. Try to avoid Styrofoam, cartons, and PVCs where possible. Any packaging made with recycled material will be recyclable and likely list a disclaimer on the container. Case in point: Tata Harper‘s packaging is bottled in reusable and recyclable glass (with soy ink used for the labeling), while 85 percent of Aveda’s skincare and haircare products are made of 100 percent recycled materials.  

3You’re using disposable makeup wipes every day.

  As useful as single-use makeup wipes are, the cotton used to create makeup removal pads and buds are not biodegradable and don’t easily break down, causing too much trash to stack up in our landfills. What’s worse is that some are actually individually wrapped in plastic, doubling the amount of waste produced.   The solution: If you use a small mountain of cotton balls or wipes on the daily, consider switching to washable, reusable pads, like the Makeup Eraser Cloth ($20; sephora.com), that only require water to work. Not only will you be doing a huge favor for the environment, you also won’t have to restock as often and you’ll be saving your skin from all those harmful pesticides in regular cotton balls.  

4You’re not taking advantage of refill programs.

  Chances are you have some holy grail beauty products that you swear by—and you simply toss 'em and order another when you reach the bottom of the tube. Well, you might want to check if your favorites are refillable. More and more beauty brands are starting to offer intelligent refill systems that allow you to reuse your existing jars and containers.   The solution: Limit your packaging consumption with refillable makeup and skincare products. Myro, a chic deodorant company, has a subscription service that periodically sends you new scent cartridge refills that are ready to be popped in whenever you're running low. Rituals, an ayurveda-inspired bath and body brand, offers eco-friendly refills for their skincare and body products—just take out the bottom of the jar and replace. And Kjar Weis is a sustainable makeup brand with gorgeous compacts that can be used again and again. Simply remove the cartridge and refill with a fresh one when you hit pan.   But wait, there’s more! Loop is a program that gives customers the chance to buy products from beauty brands, like Dove, Pantene, and The Body Shop, while renting the packaging. You just pay for the contents and a deposit for the bottle and it’s delivered to your door via a carbon-neutral mode of transport. Let Loop know when you’re running low, return the empty bottle to be cleaned, and they’ll send a new product to you in reused packaging.  

5You’re a serial beauty dater.

  Every beauty lover is probably guilty of this one (myself included). Do you like to use different beauty products on rotation? From those products, do you tend to barely dip in before moving on the next one? If you’ve answered yes, you’re a serial beauty dater. This mindset feeds into the buy-and-throw-away mentality, which takes a hard toll on the environment (and your bank account).   The solution: Streamline your beauty routine! A good system to practice: Only add one new product to your routine once you’ve finished another one.   If you want to experiment, try doing it with brands that remove packaging from its products altogether. Lush, Ethique, and Love Beauty and Planet all have shampoo bars that come wrapped in recyclable paper that clean your hair without ingredients that hurt the environment when they go down the drain. Meow Meow Tweet and Davines also has a wide range of products, from bar soaps to facial products, that utilize paper tubes instead of plastic.   Now, if you do have a stash of products you just don't want anymore, lilah b. has a system that takes away your unwanted beauty goods (even if it's not theirs) for free. Just e-mail declutter@lilahbeauty.com to receive a prepaid return shipping label and ship over your unwanted stuff. They'll work with a dedicated partner to process and recycle them so you get to declutter and give back to the system.

Take a look in your garbage and recycling bins: I bet a majority of it is food-related packaging and disposables. As a sustainability writer, advocate, consultant, and educator, I encourage people to check out their garbage (yeah, I’m that person), and one of the things that often comes up in conversation is how to shop in bulk and avoid packaging in our increasingly scarce grocery hauls.   Zero-waste grocery options are popping up all over and are making it easier than ever to shop waste-free. These shops and delivery services streamline the process of shopping and make living zero-waste a lot more feasible for the average consumer.   Package-free grocery stores like Precycle in Brooklyn and Nada in Vancouver are known for offering produce, spices, nuts, and even milk and eggs without packaging. According to Nada’s website, they’ve diverted over 30,000 containers from ending up in landfill or the recycling stream. They also house an in-store zero-waste cafe that uses surplus from the produce department, creating a circular economy within their shop.   And for those who like the convenience of shopping from home (many of us these days), Denver-based zero-waste delivery service Infinity Goods was founded by Ashwin Ramdas and co-founder Dani McClean to make zero-waste shopping as easy as possible.   “Dani and I were trying to live a plastic-free life — but with groceries, it was almost impossible,” explains Ramdas. “So much food comes in single-use packaging, we had to give up many of the foods we loved like pasta and ice cream, not to mention lugging around containers to multiple stores that had limited selections. We knew that if it was this difficult for us, it was that difficult for anyone trying to cut down on waste.”   Infinity Goods offers same-day delivery and provides provisions well beyond the bulk section, delivering hard-to-find package free items such as tofu, energy bars, and even ice cream (yes, they delivered me vegan, gluten-free ice cream in a mason jar and my life was basically complete). You save your jars, bags, and even recyclables and give them back on your next delivery, the company ensuring they get reused, properly recycled, or composted if necessary.   While Infinity Goods is currently local to Denver, other initiatives are reaching across the country and the world. The Wally Shop started as a zero-waste delivery service in New York City, and recently raised over $50k to expand its service nationwide.   Loop, founded by TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky, was started with the mission to make it as easy as possible for consumers to shop in a low-waste manner for their usual goods. Launched in 2019, Loop has partnered with some of the largest companies that are making consumer packaged goods such as Unilever, P&G, and PepsiCo, as well as smaller brands like Burlap & Barrel and Melanin Essentials, to offer some of the most popular food, beverages, supplements, and beauty products in reusable goods. Once you’re done, you simply put your items back in the tote and they pick them up.   This both lowers the barrier to entry and allows consumers to keep enjoying their favorite products in a zero-waste manner. Loop is currently available in the mid-Atlantic, as well as select regions in Europe, with hopes to expand. While zero-waste grocery shopping has felt pretty niche for some time now, with the proliferation of options and larger companies getting on board, zero-waste delivery services such as Loop and Infinity Goods could well rival Amazon’s delivery services.   The important part is that shopping this way be simple — or maybe even easier — for the consumer. “We want to shift the conversation away from personal consumer responsibility,” Ramdas explains. “We will never solve the pollution crisis if we burden each individual with the responsibility of waste management.” And to do my part, I’ll continue to take my ice cream in mason jars, front door style, thank you very much.  

When buying food and beverage items, consumers are looking for delicious treats and drinks, but younger consumers are also looking to enjoy products that can help the environment. The average consumer is more aware that single-use containers, often made of plastic, are negatively affecting the environment. A Consumer Brands Association report found 86% of Americans believe we are experiencing a packaging and plastic waste crisis. What are producers doing to address this crisis? CPG brands create their own sustainability solutions Most legacy food and beverage companies have set sustainability goals for their organizations. Many of those goals include increased availability of products that come in sustainable packaging. Conagra, Nestle and Unilever all made recent pledges to increase sustainable materials in their packaging over the next five years. Conagra intends to make all of its plastic containers renewable, recyclable or compostable while Nestle and Unilever both signed the European Plastics Pact, which designates that participants are committed to boosting the recycled plastic content for single-use products and creating reusable packaging. In California, PepsiCo is testing a better substitute for plastic rings on beverage six-packs: molded pulp and paperboard packaging. This trial demonstrates how CPG producers are working to address customer desires for sustainable packaging that still fills the durability needs of companies. “[W]e’ve worked collaboratively with our suppliers to ensure the two solutions that we’re testing meet the needs of our consumers and customers while also addressing our functionality and sustainability requirements,” Emily Silver, PepsiCo Beverages North America’s vice president of innovation and marketing capabilities, said to BeverageDaily. While many brands are creating their own packaging solutions or reducing their virgin plastic use, several are also investing in a broader eco-friendly packaging infrastructure. Nestle is planning to purchase roughly $1.6 billion worth of recycled plastic over the next five years, and Perrier has launched an investment program for startups that are developing packaging options that have a “positive environmental and social impact.” Loop takes reusing to the masses Rather than simply reducing or recycling virgin plastic, some companies are addressing waste by offering accessible, reusable packaging. Recycling business TerraCycle debuted its circular delivery service Loop to consumers in 2019, and it is currently available in Paris, France, and the northeast region of the US. Loop’s online platform allows users to shop for consumer packaged goods products in reusable packaging from a variety of brands, which are shipped in a reusable container -- the Loop Tote -- that rids the need for single-use shipping materials. “While disposable design focuses on making our packaging as cheap as possible, durable design focuses on making containers as long lasting as possible, allowing us to access unparalleled materials, design, and function,” the Loop site states. After using up the products, Loop customers return the empty packaging via free UPS pickup where it is returned to Loop to be cleaned and disinfected in preparation for reuse. “Customers are demanding that brands step up and provide solutions that produce less waste,” said Loop Publicist Eric Rosen. “Brands are responding to this push by investing in sustainable packaging solutions such as Loop’s reuse model.” The service is currently available online, but Loop products will be available in Walgreens and Kroger retail locations in the US later in 2020. Once Loop products arrive at retail, customers will also be able to make in-store returns of reusable containers instead of shipping them. Loop’s brand partners include food brands such as Haagen Dazs, Hidden Valley, Tropicana and Chameleon Cold Brew. The service also offers personal care and cleaning products from brands such as Gillette, Dove, Tide and Clorox. Rosen said that Loop welcomes participation from any type or size of CPG brand as long as they are committed to transforming their packaging from single-use to multi-use. “One challenge is redesigning packaging that lasts many reuse cycles,” Rosen said. “Brands must find the right material and design to suit their product. TerraCycle acts as a consultant for the packaging development process and tests all packaging for cleanability and durability prior to approval in the platform.” Rosen also revealed that Loop will be expanding internationally in 2020. Loop will partner with Tesco in the UK, Loblaws in Canada and Aeon in Japan. The platform also plans to be available in Germany and Australia in 2021. “Consumers can support brands that are taking the next step from recyclable packaging to reusable packaging,” said Rosen. “[R]ecycling is never going to be enough to solve waste at the root cause.”  

Companies like Coca-Cola used to collect 98 percent of their bottles, and new entrepreneurs are learning from their tactics. TRENTON, NEW JERSEYIn the flood of innovative solutions that have emerged in the last several years to save the world from plastic pollution, Tom Szaky’s fix may be one of the most audacious. Don’t misunderstand. He has not tried to come up with yet another formula to make plastic magically biodegrade like leaves on the ground, a goal of many entrepreneurs that remains elusive. Nor has he devised new ways to remake disposable plastic packaging into new plastic packaging. Instead, Szaky has gone old school with a concept that dates to the turn of the last century—returnable, refillable containers. The idea was introduced to the world by Coca-Cola in the early 1920s, when Coke was sold in expensive glass bottles that the company’s bottlers needed back. They charged a two-cent deposit, roughly 40 percent of the full cost of the soft drink, and got about 98 percent of their bottles back, to be reused 40 or 50 times. Bottle deposit programs remain one of the most effective methods ever invented for recovering packaging. Ten months ago, Szaky launched Loop, an online delivery service that uses sturdy, reusable containers. The bold part of his venture—or risk, if you are one of his financial backers—is that Loop pushes far beyond the uniformity of returnable beverage bottles and sells more than 300 items, from food to laundry detergent, in containers of various sizes and made from various materials. His signature product is Haagen-Dazs ice cream that comes packed inside a sleek, insulated stainless steel tub guaranteed to prevent its contents from melting. Slightly disheveled in jeans and a hoodie, Szaky looks every bit the millennial entrepreneur. Now 38, he dropped out of Princeton 17 years ago to become an innovator in the garbage business. He founded TerraCycle, a small waste management company, 10 miles from the Princeton campus. He figured out a way to recycle diapers, cigarette butts, and a long list of other non-recyclables. In time, he became more interested in restoring the circularity of that earlier era and eliminating the disposability from packaging altogether. “Loop’s theory is let’s learn from the past and go back to a model where when you buy your deodorant, you’re borrowing the package and just paying for the content,” he says.   This refillable steel Häagen-Dazs ice cream container is from Loop, a company that packages everyday items into reusable containers. Loop is part of the resurgence of refillables as a serious option to plastic waste. The beverage industry is expanding its use of returnable bottles; an Oregon brewery claims to have started the United States’ first state-wide refillable beer system. More significantly, efforts like Loop’s to reinvent packaging for products that don’t fit easily into the refillable category have attracted startups and some of the world’s largest corporate players. Starbucks and McDonalds are partnering in a pilot program in California known as the NextGen Cup Challenge to sell coffee in reusable cups. If it works, the companies could spare the world the remains of billions of paper cups lined with a thin film of plastic that prevents leakage. And in Chile, a small startup called Algramo is working to replace single-serving packets known as sachets that are sold by the billions in Africa and Asia. The concept was to make coffee, toothpaste and other products affordable to impoverished people who couldn’t afford to buy in larger amounts. Sachets are mostly not recyclable and have made the glut of plastic litter in those nations worse. Algramo, whose name means “by the gram” in Spanish, is creating a vending machine system to dispense food and cleaning products into reusable containers. Last December, it won the National Geographic and Sky Ventures Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge’s prize for using circular economy principles and a $100,000 purse. As Szaky tours Loop’s warehouse, where newly filled containers are shipped out and returned empties taken in, he notes the irony that this age-old method has only flowered again because waste has become a global crisis. “Five years ago, we couldn’t have done this,” he says. No one would have signed on. Not consumers, who pay a healthy, refundable deposit. And not the companies he’s convinced to join his experiment. Consumers and product retailers might have laughed at the idea as too unrealistic and inconvenient, neither being the ingredients for success.The shipping expenses alone, which involve up to six transfers, would have given investors pause. Then, almost overnight, the game changed. Szaky pitched his idea to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and convinced Nestle, Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, among others, to sign on.

A spotlight on plastic waste grows

It’s easy to lose sight of how quickly the landscape of plastics has shifted. Only a decade ago scientists and plastic manufacturers and retailers were still arguing about whether disposable plastic was even a serious issue. In 2011, when Ocean Conservancy met with scientists, activists, and plastics industry executives in an effort to set up what eventually became, in 2012, the Trash Free Alliance so all parties could work together, no consensus on the issue existed. “There was the question, is this just unsightly or a real problem?” recalls George Leonard, the conservancy’s chief scientist. “People retracted back into their corners. The NGOs said, ‘The world is coming to an end,’ and the industry sector said, ‘We don’t think it’s a problem.’” The debate effectively ended with publication in 2015 of the first solid numbers showing plastic waste washing into the ocean at an average rate of 8.5 million tons a year. The years that followed produced a glut of anti-plastic campaigns, bans of shopping bags and other products, pledges by retailers to use more recycled plastic in new packaging, industry investment in recycling facilities, and cleanups of existing waste. A count of scientific studies assembled by Richard Thompson, the British marine scientist who coined the term microplastics, reveals how rapidly plastic came to be considered an environmental crisis. In 2011, the year of Leonard’s meeting, 103 scientific studies containing the words “plastic” and “pollution” were published. The count in 2019, using the same code words, was 879 studies. “Thank goodness we’re over the hump,” says Chelsea Rochman, a marine scientist at the University of Toronto who is leading a working group of scientists trying to sort out which of the various solutions are most effective. The consulting firm Systemiq, with offices in London, Munich, and Indonesia, is also making a similar assessment. The results of both projects may further shape the debate on how to proceed. In the meantime, it helps to consider where things stand today: Of the 9.2 billion tons of plastic ever manufactured, 6.9 billion tons have become waste. Most of that—6.3 billion tons, or to put it another way, a whopping 91 percent—has never been recycled. The number seemed so shocking that the UK’s Royal Statistical Society named it the international statistic of the year in 2018. That’s the same year that China stopped buying the world’s waste, and recycling has only become more troubled since. Beyond recycling, 12 percent of plastic waste is incinerated, mostly in Europe and Asia. About 79 percent goes to a landfill or leaks into the natural environment. As a measure of how quickly plastic production accelerated in recent decades, half of all plastics ever made has been produced since 2013. Production is projected to double in the next 20 years, according to a 2016 report by the World Economic Forum. Finally, plastic is exceedingly cheap to make. And its low cost is one of the main impediments to developing an economically viable, global system for recycling or otherwise disposing of plastic waste. “Recycled and reclaimed plastic has little value. Virgin plastic is cheaper to make,” Leonard says. “Why would you do anything else other than make more new plastic? It’s not a good business decision to do anything else.”

Back to the future

Aside from the economics, most of the solutions that might reduce plastic waste are hobbled by a passel of problems: still-to-be-solved technical challenges, misinformation, a lack of uniform standards that leaves consumers confused. Biodegradables often don’t actually biodegrade, especially in the oceans, where they’re much more likely to fracture into microplastics. Most compostables need very high heat to break down, requiring processing in special, industrial composters. Compostable material will not biodegrade, for example, in landfill. The two terms are often used interchangeably by consumers, but are not the same. Material labeled biodegradable can contaminate compostable material if added to the mix. Mechanical recycling, which involves grinding plastic waste into small bits that are melted and remade into new plastics, is also easily contaminated by incompatible types of plastic, dirt, and food residue. Plastics reprocessed by this method can only be remade so many times before losing strength and other characteristics. Chemical recycling, which returns plastics to their requisite molecules, alleviates much of both problems. Industry analysts regard it as the option showing the most promise, and the numbers of companies involved in developing chemical recycling is growing. But it’s still a big bet. It’s expensive and questions remain as to whether it can be scaled up enough to make a difference. In any event, both forms of recycling, as well as composting, are dependent on what remains the most dysfunctional component of dealing with plastic waste: Someone has to collect it all and sort it. Loop first launched last May in and around New York and Paris. It plans to expand to the UK, Toronto, and Tokyo later this year, and to Germany and Australia in 2021. The product line, Szaky says, grows by one or two a week and a new retailer joins, on average, once a month. Because consumer behavior is very hard to change, Szaky thinks the refillables business must come as close as it can to mimicking the ordinary shopping experience. He has partnered with Walgreens and Kroeger to set up aisles of refillables, similar to bulk food aisles, making refillables even more convenient to use. As technicalities of handling plastic waste are eventually resolved, it is the consumers who may become the toughest challenge of all. Plastic as a material is not the villain, but the way it’s used, he says, and the idea of single-use plastic is a concept that is now 70 years old. He poses a rhetorical question: “What do we as shoppers care about? Convenience, affordability, and performance. Not one of those three things has anything to do with sustainability.” He argues that consumers are the most important actors in sorting out the plastics mess, with the ability to effect corporate change with their wallets. “We vote blindly, day after day after day, with money, telling companies what we want, and we need to take that seriously,” he says. “We should buy less and make sure the things we buy are circular.”

A year ago, a coalition of some of the world’s biggest brands embarked on an experiment: If they started selling everyday products like shampoo in reusable, returnable packaging instead of single-use plastic, would customers buy it? Could a modern version of the milkman model—where customers shop online, and then return empty containers via UPS to be cleaned and refilled for a new customer—make business sense? For brands, the new platform, called Loop, was a radical step to test fundamental changes to how they package and deliver products, driven by consumer pressure to deal with the problem of plastic pollution. The first pilots started in May 2019. The tests have been successful enough that the system is now rapidly expanding and will soon launch in retail stores. [Photo: courtesy Loop] “Companies are looking for new ways to address packaging and reduce waste, and consumers are demanding it,” says Steve Yeh, a project manager at Häagen-Dazs, the Nestlé-owned ice cream brand. The brand committed major resources to developing new packaging for the pilot: a novel stainless steel ice cream canister that’s designed to keep ice cream cold longer. It then can be sent back, sterilized in a state-of-the-art cleaning system, and reused. (It also looks a lot nicer on your counter.) The system is designed to be simple for consumers—in theory, nearly as easy as buying something in a disposable package and throwing that package in the trash. Online orders are delivered in a reusable tote, and when a customer has an empty container, it goes back in the tote, the customer schedules a pickup, the packages are returned for reuse, and the customer gets back a deposit that they paid for the package (or, if they’ve reordered the product, the deposit stays in an account and they don’t pay it again). Despite using heavier packages, more transportation, and cleaning, it has a lower carbon footprint than single-use packaging. And it keeps packages out of landfills and the ocean. “We all know that recycling alone will not be enough,” says Sara Wingstrand, who leads the innovation team at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an organization focused on the circular economy. “This is a whole new way to actually think about how you can bring products to people.” [Photo: courtesy Loop] In Nestlé’s case, an internal team went through 15 iterations to reach the final design of the ice cream container, which has benefits beyond reducing waste. The package has a double metal lining, so it’s comfortable to hold, but keeps the ice cream inside from melting; it’s also designed to melt a little more quickly at the top, so it’s easier to scoop than it otherwise would be. Rounded edges mean that ice cream doesn’t get stuck in the bottom corners. And it looks better than a disposable package. The aesthetics, surprisingly, have been a bigger driver in the pilot’s success than the environmental benefits. “People actually are attracted to Loop first for design, second for reuse,” says Tom Szaky, CEO of Terracycle, the recycling company that first helped create the coalition of brands to test the platform, who is now also CEO of Loop. “The design is so important to consumers—more than I ever thought it would be.” It’s proof, he says, of what’s possible when the economics of packaging change. “If you go back 100 years and look at what your cookies came in or what your beer came in, it was a significantly greater investment in the package. As we make packaging lighter and cheaper, it becomes less recyclable, essentially growing the garbage crisis. And as we spend less money, [packages] clearly become less exciting and less desirable. The response to Loop is a simple one: Let’s shift ownership of the package in the end back to the manufacturer. And as such, they treat it as an asset and they can start investing in the pack again.” [Photo: courtesy Loop] The investment in the packages means that for the system to work, consumers have to put down a deposit for each container. In the pilot, Loop says that customers haven’t been sensitive to the price. “It’s not money out of your pocket,” says Donna Liu, a customer in New Jersey who has been using the system for several months. After the initial deposit, customers don’t have to pay again as they continue reordering the same products, and they can ultimately get the money back. But the deposits are steep, and would likely deter lower-income customers. In one review, a Huffington Post writer noted that she paid $32 in deposits for only six items (in addition to $20 in shipping, and the cost of the products themselves). Loop says it plans to have the costs come down as the system scales up. “Today, in small scale, it makes no economic sense because everything is inefficient in small scale,” says Szaky. “But a lot of our retail partners and our brand partners have modeled this in large scale. And it’s come out very exciting—it’s going to be able to be executed at scale and not cost the consumer more.” Wingstrand, who is not involved with Loop, notes that some other reusable models are already economically viable at scale, such as reusable water jugs delivered to offices. The e-commerce pilot has faced some challenges. Some customers complained about the small selection of products. Those who live in small apartments don’t like the bulky size of the reusable tote, which has enough padding inside to accommodate 16 wine bottles; one reviewer said that she was forced to use it as an ottoman until she was ready to send packages back. But moving to retail stores could help alleviate these issues. [Photo: courtesy Loop] Today, the online store has more than 150 products, including Tide detergent and Pantene shampoo in stainless steel containers, Nature’s Path granola in glass jars, and products from smaller brands like Reinberger Nut Butter. But that’s a tiny fraction of the hundreds of products online at, say, Walgreens, and one of the biggest questions from customers in the pilot has been when more products will be available. Szaky says that Loop is adding a new brand roughly every two days—but there’s a long development process for new packaging after a company joins. “This is not an overnight thing,” he says. “It takes maybe a year to get a product up and running.” In retail stores, though, customers can pick and choose which Loop products to use. “By the retailer listing in-store, the benefit to the consumer is they can go shop the Loop section, which will grow every day and get bigger and bigger, but whatever they don’t find in the Loop section they can still buy traditionally,” says Szaky. Customers can also avoid the hassle of shipping empty containers back and the size of the reusable tote; for retail returns, customers will toss containers in a reusable garbage bag and then bring them back to the store. It’s still designed to be simpler than traditional refill systems in stores—rather than cleaning and refilling your own container, you bring back dirty containers, drop them off, and buy already-packaged products on the shelf. As with online orders, you’ll pay a deposit on the container and then get it back when the container is returned. [Photo: courtesy Loop] The online pilot launched last May in and around Paris, New York City, and a few nearby areas; the startup has since added Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Vermont, and Rhode Island. It will soon expand to California as well as the U.K., Canada, Germany, and Japan, and will launch in Australia next year. Retail sales will begin later this year with Walgreens and Kroger in the U.S., Carrefour in France, Tesco in the U.K., and Loblaws in Canada. Loop won’t share specific numbers, but says that it’s seeing high numbers of repeat orders from its initial customers. The size of the pilot was limited, but more than 100,000 people applied. The startup envisions the model growing like organic food. “Every store started having a small section dedicated to organic products, but not all products had an organic alternative,” Szaky says. “That’s how it began, then it got bigger and bigger. And some stores like Costco have moved everything over to organic.” He notes that organic food still represents only about 5% of the market, and that has taken decades, but it’s a reasonable comparison. [Photo: courtesy Loop] The number of options will continue to grow. In a recent report, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimated that converting just 20% of plastic packaging to reusable models is now a $10 billion business opportunity. But Szazky sees it not as an opportunity, but an imperative. As he told Harvard Business Review in a recent interview: “I think that we’re going to see some organizations die because of this. Others will pivot. . . . Some organizations, like Nestlé, Unilever, and P&G, are taking these issues seriously and making the difficult decisions that may negatively impact the short term but lay the foundation to be relevant in the long term. Inversely, organizations—like many big food companies in the U.S.—are blind to what’s coming and will likely be overtaken by startups that are building their business models around the new reality that is emerging.” [Photo: courtesy Loop] For the brands that are pivoting, Loop is helping push them to experiment with reusable packaging. Häagen-Dazs is already using the container it designed for the system in stores in New York City, where customers bring it back an average of 62% of the time. (At the ice cream shops, customers don’t pay a deposit, but buy the container outright and then get discounts on ice cream each time they bring it back.) It now plans to roll out the container in 200 of its other stores. Unilever—which has products from brands like Love Beauty and Planet on the platform and is preparing to launch more products from Seventh Generation, Hellman’s, Dove deodorant, and others this year—is also experimenting with in-store refill systems and partnering with startups like Algramo, a Chile-based company that offers a mobile refill system on electric tricycles. “I think Loop provides a really good platform to start testing reusable packaging without setting everything up yourself,” says Wingstrand. “But I do think it’s very important to go very broad and make sure that not only are you putting and testing new packaging formats on the Loop platform, but you’re also trying to understand how the user might interact with a refill system, or how you might supply things in a compact format, or how you might even completely design out the packaging.”

Loop is now a reality in nine states in the northeastern United States, Washington, and plans to grow more in that country, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom and Japan. In less than a year of operation, Loop , a circular purchasing platform for consumer products designed not to generate packaging waste - developed by Tom Szaky and his team - has had an undeniable receptivity on the part of several brand-owned companies and retail chains around the world; and it is increasingly welcomed and used by final consumers, who see it as an efficient way to contribute to the mitigation of the environmental impact of waste. (More about Loop in this article from Mundo PMMI). From New York, Tom Szaky spoke with Mundo PMMI and explained the dimension that the platform has been charging. He also referred to the challenges and priorities that have been established for its consolidation and strengthening in different countries and regions of the world, and its future in other regions of the globe. PMMI World: Some define Loop as one of the most disruptive advances in Circular Economy and packaging to date. What is the balance after these eight months after its launch and has it been proven whether our society is ready for Loop? Tom Szaky: Loop is an engine for producers to create reusable versions of their products and for retail chains to integrate those offers, both physically, in stores, and in their online sales. There are many ways to assess the success of Loop and one of them is the number of people who are joining the initiative, that is, how large this ecosystem is becoming. And I must say that since we opened we are adding a brand every two business days; The number of new revenues is astronomical, it grows very quickly with some medium-sized brands and startups , but also with many large companies. The same goes for retail companies, we are receiving a retail firm every three weeks. In fact, in March of this year we will be going out with Tesco in the United Kingdom, with the Loblaws food and pharmacy chain in Canada in June, in Japan in November, and also in Germany. Australia is also on its way. Another way to measure the success of Loop is the availability to consumers. I am very pleased to say that this year, both in the United States and in France, you can see the products in the physical stores of retailers and they will be able to return the containers to the store, which is very important to be able to take the model to great scale. Additionally, retail chains such as Carrefour are inserting Loop products into their e-commerce pages, and the cost will be associated with shipping and collection. This brings great operational challenges and is the result of trials conducted during 2019. In general, what we have seen is that consumers are responding very well to the Loop model, and this is the reason we will continue to grow. In summary, today we have around 200 brands and we are adding a brand every two days, we also have about 50 retailers and we are adding one every three weeks. PMMI World: What is Loop's biggest challenge today?  Tom Szaky: Our biggest challenge and priority is to make Loop feel as “disposable” as possible, that is to say that the consumer lives the experience of feeling like on a platform exactly the same as what he experiences when he consumes a disposable product. One of the things that people have told us in the first presentations, and one of the main challenges, is that they would like to see more and more Loop products available in the market. In the beginning the products were only obtained online and the user bought them by this means; Now, through the retail chains, it is possible to find the products in the stores, which allows the buyer to acquire both the Loop products and the others that he usually buys. This is why it is important that the product feels disposable but works towards the consumer as reusable. This is what leads us to focus on the disposable experience, because that is what the user is looking for.   Loop is a circular buying platform for mass consumption products designed not to generate packaging waste, developed by Tom Szaky and his team.   PMMI World: The difference between the generation of millennials and the most senior generates an impact? Is it possible that it is easier to convince a millennial to buy through Loop than a Baby Boomer?   Tom Szaky: It's an interesting approach, but I don't share it. I think millennials join an initiative like Loop because they are tired of garbage; They have lived their entire lives using disposables and want to get out of that and do something different. But, in the case of a Baby Boomers or the parents of a millennial , the experience is very familiar, since that way the purchases worked before. Loop returns them to their childhood where there was no garbage, this is why an interest is generated for them, and for these reasons arouses emotion in both generations. PMMI World: What is Loop's biggest opportunity today? Tom Szaky: The main focus is to attract a large number of fast-moving consumer products and many retail chains that sell their products on the platform. Secondly, it is reaching fast food restaurants, and then there would be the clothing sector. PMMI World: How is Loop attracting fast food companies? Tom Szaky: We are now working with one of the largest fast food brands in the world, developing a type of reusable potato chip packaging, so that when ordering the customer can choose the reusable option and get an aesthetically pleasing packaging , beautiful, that works under the same method. PMMI World: What has been the main reason why TerraCycle has managed to convince big brands like Nestlé, Unilever, Pepsico, Danone - to name a few - to join and be part of Loop? Tom Szaky: I think that basically there have been two factors, which occurred simultaneously: the moment and the immense capacity that Loop offers to innovate and turn products into something exciting, with aesthetically beautiful packaging, that work. Those two factors together have been tremendously important for the development we are seeing today for Loop. PMMI World: What could you say about the innovations that Loop has encouraged in the design of reusable packaging?   Tom Szaky: I think consumers want to have the feeling and experience of disposable. The important thing about returning ownership of the container to the manufacturing company is that it becomes an asset, and being an asset manufacturers can make more significant investments in it. Loop gave brands and their designers the ability to achieve in the packaging aspects that they had always wanted to do and that the system had not allowed them basically due to cost factors. PMMI World: What is the power of the packaging reusability model? Tom Szaky: Reusability is an idea that everyone understands; Children today understand packaging more than its contents, they know that garbage is wrong and that recycling is fine, although they cannot explain anything about palm oil, or climate change. PMMI World: How was the task of convincing the consumer that reusability is possible? Tom Szaky: I think showing them that it works; Initially the consumer doubts, and once they see it in operation, everyone believes: none of this is new, this is how it was done around the 1930s. It is not impossible to sell this concept, it is simply to refresh an old idea. PMMI World: Could you mention any statistics that reflect the impact of the reusability model on packaging in terms of carbon footprint reduction? Tom Szaky: This depends on the packaging, of course. Statistically, around the first three years, the impact is equal to that of the disposable model. In the first use, the reuse is worse than in the case of the disposable; at all three uses it is the same; at five uses it is 15% better than waste; and in the tenth use it is 75% better. These are statistics of our allies and Loop, which we have also obtained through life cycle analysis, LCA. PMMI World: Infrastructure has been a very important challenge for you. Tom Szaky: Yes it has been a great challenge, but not the greatest. We are now present in France, in the United States, we are going to inaugurate Loop in the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan and Germany this year. We have very good infrastructure partners and with very good capital, so this has been a setback, but it is not an issue that cannot be overcome. PMMI World: What is the next step in the global expansion of Loop? Do you contemplate the possibility of being in Latin America soon? Tom Szaky: We are looking to enter Latin America, in Brazil we have been with TerraCycle for many years and we believe that by 2021 we will be there, with the Loop model. PMMI World: Having a reusable product means that it has an important value that exceeds the value of disposables, if the brands gave a value to the single-use container, do you think this would promote collection and recycling? Tom Szaky: Yes, definitely. The more value a single-use container is given, the greater its recyclability. PMMI World: TerraCycle has been recognized for recycling difficult materials. Do you think that migrating to reusability can affect recyclability? Tom Szaky: TerraCycle is growing very fast, we had an organic growth of 30% this year. The two initiatives are growing and have different roles; I believe that reusability has a projection towards the future and recyclability is more related to what we are doing in the present. The main focus on the production of disposable packaging is to make them as economical as possible, and when the packaging is cheaper the overall cost is reduced and it ends with a more complex packaging in terms of material, as in the case of multilayer. In my opinion that is the biggest problem, that the main objective of the brands, which is to reduce costs, goes in reverse of the recyclability of the packaging. PMMI World: How do you see the future? What is the greatest contribution that could be made to mitigate the impact of waste? Tom Szaky: For us it's about creating more reusable alternatives for the products and making them more available for more retailers to distribute. Our way of calculating success is by measuring how much users migrate from single-use containers to multi-use products and packages. That is our goal in general.

It took a baby-shower invitation to make me realize just how far the resale economy has come. The invite steered me toward the registry of the parents-to-be, who opened their list with this line: “We always love and prefer used items over new ones.” Sure, I’ve written about Patagonia’s Worn Wear, Neiman Marcus’ pioneering partnership with Fashionphile, and the decision of retailers like Macy’s, JC Penney and H&M to sell used clothes in their stores. And I’ve been watching the steady flow of ThredUp and RealReal packages on my porch, all addressed to the resident millennial. (I’ve even scored a few items myself.) I’d always assumed the trend came from folks wanting to spend less dough, or as a good-scout choice for the planet. But the “love and prefer” line puts all this resale in a whole new light: This isn’t a trend anymore. It’s the way young consumers insist on shopping. Businesses are getting it. I wasn’t able to make it to the National Retail Federation’s Big Show this year, but attendees were buzzing about a session on circular supply chains. Speakers included execs from the Patagonia program; Yertle, the D2C company that sells used clothes from Patagonia, REI and others; and Terra Cycle’s Loop, a subscription service that lets consumers reuse packaging from major national brands, including Procter & Gamble and Unilever. And a new report from Ike Boruchow, an analyst who follows the apparel sector for Wells Fargo, says we ain’t seen nothing yet. “We continue to believe that the consumer’s willingness to transition to resale is in the very early innings,” he writes. He notes that the U.S. resale market is about $24 billion today and growing at about 15% a year. That compares to just 2% growth for the $400 billion apparel sector. While the RealReal, which specializes in used luxury items, is generating attention, other companies, like Poshmark, Rebag and StockX, are more compelling models, Boruchow writes. And he predicts used clothing will move from about 6% of total clothing sales to 10% of the pie by 2022. Boruchow writes that ThredUp, the world’s largest fashion resale marketplace, has a gross market value of about $250 million, and is growing between 40% and 50% a year. In addition to partnering with retailers, it also benefits from retail partnerships, online collaborations, a loyalty program, and its “secondhand clothes, firsthand fun” positioning. As ThredUp and other D2C brands continue to steal share from conventional retailers,  more stores will look for ways to get in on the action, Boruchow predicts. But given the digital demands of these younger shoppers, it won’t be easy. “Looking at the market demographics, the shift to wearing someone else’s clothes is dominated by the young consumer, as it seems more and more like their natural behavior,” he writes. “As millennials and Gen Z become the core customer, growth will be more exponential.”