It’s been nine months since the startup Loop, brainchild of TerraCycle founder and CEO Tom Szaky, took the world by storm with its zero-waste circular delivery service. If you’re like us at TriplePundit, you’re probably wondering how it is doing as it nears the one-year mark. While the company does not disclose its total number of subscribers, Szaky gave a candid update at last week’s Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit in New York.

Adding one brand per day

First announced at the World Economic Forum in January, Loop made its initial start with pilots in metro New York and Paris. Ever since, Szaky says, business has been quickly growing. Today, Loop is available in select areas in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington, D.C. It is in the process of expanding throughout the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and Japan, Szaky said. And with comments such as “When is Loop coming to Illinois….I can’t wait!” sprinkled across Loop’s Instagram account, it seems expansion can’t come soon enough for many. Loop’s value proposition is enabling the consumer “to responsibly consume a variety of commonly used products from leading consumer brands in customized, brand-specific durable packaging delivered in a specially designed reusable shipping tote.” When finished with the product, the packaging is collected, cleaned, refilled and reused. There are no monthly membership fees or subscriptions, although customers do pay a refundable one-time deposit to borrow the reusable container. “Loop will not just eliminate the idea of packaging waste, but greatly improve the product experience and shopping convenience,” Szaky said at the launch. The initial coalition included 28 partners such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo, Mondelez International, Nestlé, Danone and UPS.  Today, the list has grown to 42 partners selling brands such as Häagen-Dazs, Tide, Tropicana and Colgate. Essential to Loop’s success is its ability to offer consumers the same choice they would find in brick-and-mortar retail stores, and the Loop management team knew that quickly scaling up offerings was key. According to Szaky, Loop is now adding approximately one new brand per day. The brands themselves seem to be having fun with new packaging design, such as Procter & Gamble, whose ProPantene shampoo and conditioner containers are emblazoned with “I Reuse….I Love the Oceans.”

Shoppers love ice cream from Loop, but not for the reason expected

While the products do come shipped in reusable Loop containers, critics on social media have pointed out that some of the products that Loop sells—including detergent pods and wipes—contain plastic that is not recyclable. But it turns out that this may not be relevant to the majority of Loop consumers: Only a third of Loop subscribers joined the service based on sustainability concerns, Szaky said; the majority claim to have joined because of the model itself, including its convenience, something that even Szaky found surprising—and, it seems, a little frustrating given his zero-waste zeal. To date, the company says beverages in glass bottles such as Evian and Tropicana have been among the top-selling products among Loop subscribers in France. In the United States, top sellers include Clorox wipes, Cascade dishwasher detergent tabs, Pantene shampoo and Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

A few habits that throw this circular economy model for a loop

Another interesting learning that Szaky shared was that while Loop customers want similar prices for products they would buy in traditional stores, they have not been price sensitive to the deposit fees. “It’s exciting that consumers are willing to temporarily invest in the reusable containers,” he remarked. While temporary, the cost of the containers, in some cases, are not inexpensive. Take two of the top-selling products: The container for Clorox Wipes requires a $10 deposit, while the deposit for the Häagen-Dazs ice cream container is $5. Only time will tell if the model will continue to be successful, especially as more and more companies, from Unilever to Nestlé, pledge to reduce their use of plastic packaging in the next 10 to 20 years. For now, however, this service seems to be a model in high demand.

Before many households had refrigerators, milk was typically delivered directly to doorsteps all over the United States, first by horse-and-cart and later by truck. While from today’s perspective it may seem like a less efficient delivery approach, it did have one major benefit we can emulate in 2019: the milk bottles were made of glass. These empty glass bottles were collected, cleaned, and reused over and over again. Today, most consumers buy their milk in plastic containers or plastic-coated cardboard – which go straight into garbage or recycling bins. 80% of all plastic ends up in our oceans or landfills; there are 6.9 billion tons of plastic waste on the planet. Unfortunately, recycling isn’t anywhere near efficient enough to cope with growing economies, and it’s predicted that we’ll run out of landfill space in some states within 25 years. To address these ominous forecasts, an innovative recycling company called TerraCycle earlier this year invested $10 million in Loop, a start-up aiming to revolutionize the way we reuse packaging and make e-commerce a zero-waste operation.

How Does Loop Work?

Known as the “milkman model,” this closed-loop initiative operates through the following steps:

• Step 1: Consumers set up a Loop account from which they can order groceries from all participating brands via the Loop platform or associated stores such as Walgreens or Kroger.
• Step 2: Purchases are delivered to the consumer’s door using Loop’s waste-free delivery system.
• Step 3: Consumers pay a small deposit to receive their shopping in reusable, sustainable packaging made from glass, metal, and plastic.
• Step 4: Empty containers are collected and returned to Loop HQ for cleaning, refilling and future reuse.

Other companies like The Wally Shop and Infinity Goods offer similar services but Loop is making waves with over 25 high-profile partnerships including Nestle, Unilever, Procter & Gamble, and PepsiCo. Despite the additional round of shipping, this process is estimated to be 75% better for the environment thanks to the colossal savings made on materials and energy compared with single-use packaging.

What are the Advantages of Adopting the Milkman Model?

For consumers, it’s waste-free shopping made easy. For the brands, upfront costs include redesign and the development of hardy packaging which must be able to withstand multiple washes while still looking clean and untampered. However, these expenses are outweighed by positive brand awareness and the fact that customers will develop long-term loyalty to participating brands via a platform like Loop. This service is currently available in select zip codes in a handful of U.S. states and France, with plans to launch soon in Canada, Germany, Japan, and the UK. But could closed-loop initiatives like this be applied on an industrial scale? The automotive industry is leading the way with reusable packaging, in part because the robust materials provide safer transit for car parts and safer working environments for employees. General Motors, for example, reports it has made 142 of its facilities landfill-free, including 79 manufacturing plants worldwide. For manufacturers interested in applying the milkman model, the first step is to examine all packaging throughout your organization, from the wrapping used for consumables in the facility kitchen to the large pallets used to transport manufacturing equipment. Procurement can then work with suppliers to eliminate single-use packaging wherever possible and investigate the cost of the logistics involved in shipping empty containers back to suppliers. Whether a company such as Loop will one day offer this sort of service on an industrial scale remains to be seen. Reusable packaging is achievable, but brands that are truly committed to waste-free packaging will need to formalize their policies and standards across the board, collaborate with their suppliers, and make an upfront investment in sustainable packaging.

Tom has been named to the 2019 list CNN’s Risk Takers. He’s in good company, as you’ll see if you click on the link.  The air date for Tom’s feature has yet to be determined. In the meantime, you can click on Tom’s picture for a summary of what his full piece will be about.

Unilever's Dove brand will use only 100% recycled plastic bottles in North America and Europe by the end of 2019 -- “where technically feasible,” it says -- and will package single packs of Dove in plastic-free material around the world starting next year. “Development is also underway to replace the plastic outer wrap of beauty bar multipacks with a zero-plastic material,” Unilever reports. More radically, earlier this year, Unilever disclosed that Dove, Degree and Axe will begin testing new stick deodorant containers made of stainless steel designed to be reused and refilled up to 100 times. Calculating that a consumer would use one stick a month, that container could last more than eight years. Dove also reiterated its plans for this development on Monday. But for now -- or at least the near future -- the move to recycled plastic for containers will apply for Dove and its branch brands, Dove Men+Care and Baby Dove. “Dove continues to search for solutions where recycled plastic is not currently technically feasible, including for caps and pumps,” it says. A Nielsen report says 73% of millennials will pay more for a product made from sustainable material, and now many packages boldly boast their environmental qualifications for consumers to see. Many major brands are working on similar initiatives, but Dove says it’s ahead of the pack. “By taking these steps, Dove will be the biggest brand in the world that has moved to 100% recycled packaging," says Richard Slater, Unilever chief research and development officer, in a statement. “This should send a clear signal to the global recycling industry that there is a huge consumer demand for recycled packaging. We will continue to innovate across our brands to change the way we use plastic for good.” Earlier this month, Unilever committed itself to cutting its use of virgin plastic by half -- that's more than 100,000 tons -- by 2025, and to helping to collect and process more plastic packaging than it sells. It claims those goals make it the “first major global consumer goods company to commit to an absolute plastics reduction across its portfolio.” For the recyclable deodorant sticks, Unilever is working with a Trenton, New Jersey company named Terra Cycle whose Loop system is not only being tested on several Unilever products worldwide but also by products from Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Nestle and other major brands. Under the arrangement that Unilever announced earlier, consumers would order goods from the Loop website and have them delivered conventionally. But customers will pay a deposit. When they are done, they can bring it to a retailer for a refill, or return it for a refund. The containers are cleaned and reused. ' Loop is also testing a delivery plan for a wide variety of consumer goods. Unilever has said it wants all of its plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. It believes it is making good progress, and says the company’’s packaging volume is now at the same level it was in 2010, despite “the business growing significantly.”

Disposability was sold as a convenience in the post-war years of the 1950s, but it’s become a plague of plastic and nonrecyclable trash that now pollutes every corner of the world. It’s enough to make one nostalgic for the milkman—that reliable delivery person who not only dropped off milk in convenient glass bottles, but also picked them up again to be refilled and reused. Ah, those were the days… and we may see those days again. Loop—an online “circular shopping platform”—aims to revive the image and model of the milkman on a larger scale, offering customers door-to-door delivery of brand-name grocery store products in durable packaging that Loop will collect and use again.

Reusability: Back to the future

“Loop is a very utopian idea,” says Tony Rossi, Loop’s Philadelphia-based vice president of business development. “About three years ago, our CEO challenged us and himself to really solve the idea of waste at its core.” For Loop, this means enabling brands and retailers—the heart of our “take, make, dispose” linear economy—to move away from single-use packaging into durable, multiuse containers. Ultimately, the idea is to spark a wider movement to a circular economy, an economic model based on getting us much use out of the products and resources that are already in circulation, and thereby reducing both consumption and waste. The image of the milkman is a perfect embodiment of the circular economy. “One of the things that we found with the milkman model was that the milk bottle was an asset that was owned by the milk company,” Rossi explained. This made it desirable for the milk company to invest more in its milk bottles, to ensure that they would be long-lasting and durable.

From laundry detergent to ice cream

Häagen-Dazs container Much more than milk, you can buy a grocery list of goods from Loop: tea, laundry detergent, shampoo, even ice cream, all in reusable containers. Loop is working with some of the world’s biggest brands to test this back-to-the-future idea of selling products in reusable containers. The list Rossi gave of some of Loop’s early partners was impressive: Procter and Gamble, Unilever, Nestle, Clorox, Mars, and Danone, to name a few. The containers Loop uses to ship these products aren’t your run-of-the-mill Ziplocs or Tupperware containers. Just as the milkman model would suggest, there is significant investment in high-quality, durably designed containers for Loop’s products. “For me one of the most innovative and kind of jaw-dropping products so far has been the Häagen-Dazs ice cream container,” says Rossi. “It’s double-walled.” Loop’s Häagen-Dazs container is not only designed to have the longest lifespan possible—it is also designed to keep your ice cream deliciously frozen, all the way from the Loop warehouse to your door. But Loop’s containers aren’t just utilitarian; they are also beautifully designed. “There is a counter- or shelf-worthiness to the package, where you as a consumer are proud to put that on your counter,” said Rossi. Loop is trying to make sustainability “irresistible.”

How it works

Loop has no storefront. Instead, customers visit loopstore.com and place an online order, which Loop ships to their door via courier. When they are done with their products, customers can schedule a Loop courier to come pick up the empty containers. Loop has even designed a reusable shipping tote to be used for both delivery and pick-up, thus avoiding the Styrofoam and bubble wrap waste nightmare of most online purchases. Loop works on a deposit system, in which customers pay a deposit on the packaging of the products they order. You would, for instance, be required to pay a five-dollar deposit on your Häagen-Dazs ice cream container on top of the cost of the ice cream itself. Once you return the empty container, however, you would be reimbursed for the amount of the deposit.

Coming soon!

Before you get too excited, note that Loop is currently in its pilot phase, with test markets operating in the eastern United States and in Paris, France. Each test market has 5,000 participating households, but demand is high. There are currently waiting lists in these markets, with people itching to give Loop a try. With so much demand, Loop is working on launching the platform directly through retailers, as well as expanding the platform globally. Loop plans to launch new markets in the western United States, Germany, Japan, and Australia next year. Canada can expect to see Loop in the Greater Toronto Area in fall 2020. A sampling of Loop products in reusable containers.

Better for the environment?

While Loop’s circular economy model does a tremendous job of reducing packaging waste, the shipping and the materials used to make their new, durable containers must still be taken into account. According to Rossi, Loop has done multiple life cycle analyses of the impact of its reuse model as compared to that of single-use models. These analyses take into account eight different environmental factors, including carbon emissions, water usage, and impact on air and water quality—and reuse consistently comes out on top. “On average, it takes about three reuses of that durable package to have the same environmental footprint as three single-use packages,” Rossi explained. If a package is used between three and seven times, it performs 51 per cent better than single-use packaging in terms of environmental impact. If used more than seven times, this improvement increases to 70 per cent.

Waste not! Change is coming

Waste and other environmental issues are all over the news and social media these days, whether it be microplastics, plastic bags, or Greta Thunberg’s climate strikes. For Rossi, this increase in public attention and awareness of the environmental impact of our current lifestyles can mean only one thing: change is coming. “People aren’t content with the way that things are today. And everybody acknowledges the fact that we need to change. And I think that’s a powerful message. And that is forcing the hands of anybody who makes products, or is in business, to think about their environmental footprint.” Indeed, change is desperately needed. As Rossi said, “We realistically can’t fast forward 30 years into the future and continue to behave the way we’re behaving today.” He hopes Loop can play a role in spreading the gospel of the waste-not circular economy. Loop is a company owned and operated by TerraCycle, a social enterprise based in the United States that specializes in collecting and repurposing hard-to-recycle waste and operates in 20 countries. We interviewed Rossi after he presented on Loop at the Recycling Council of Alberta Sea Change conference held in Jasper, Alberta, October 2–4, 2019.

The world's largest consumer goods companies have a big problem: The plastic waste that piles up in landfills and oceans has their corporate logos all over it. To try to fix it, they're increasing recycling efforts, sponsoring beach cleanups and switching up packaging materials, among other things. The most radical effort, though, is also the hardest to pull off: Get consumers to switch from single-use to reusable packages.   It may seem impossible, but Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, Clorox and PepsiCo are all trying it out, thanks to Tom Szaky.   Szaky is the founder and CEO of TerraCycle, a recycling company based in Trenton, New Jersey. He's also the driving force behind Loop, an innovative service he likens to a 21st century milk man. Launched in May, the service sells brand-name goods like Tide detergent, Pantene shampoo, Gillette razors and Häagen-Dazs ice cream all in reusable packages. Participants pay a refundable deposit for each package, use the products, throw the empty containers into a Loop tote and send them back to be cleaned and refilled. Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle, convinced Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé and other large consumer goods makers to launch a new shopping service using reusable packaging. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN)   The stakes are high for all involved. For Szaky, failure could mean the loss of a significant investment and his reputation as a green business whiz. The companies, too, poured time and money into the project. For them, failure means one fewer solution to their plastic waste problem.   It's "the biggest risk we've ever done," Szaky told CNN Business's Rachel Crane. "It's in every way a massive gamble."   But Szaky is no stranger to risk.   Can one man bring back reusable packaging?    Durable packaging fell out of fashion decades ago, when cheap, disposable plastics replaced glass bottles and containers. Today, reintroducing the public to a system of reusable packaging is a tall order. Consumers have become accustomed to the ease of quickly tossing things away. Reusing items, however, requires them to take an extra step to preserve the packages. That's why, when Lisa McTigue Pierce, executive editor of Packaging Digest, heard about Loop, she was skeptical.   "When I first got the information, I thought to myself, 'Wow, this is never going to take off,'" she said. But then she had another thought. "This is Tom Szaky at TerraCycle ... one of the best marketers I have ever seen," she said. "If anybody could make this work, it's going to be Tom."   That's because Szaky has a history of pulling off the improbable. A number of Loop products, all of which are in reusable containers, are arranged before a Loop tote. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN)   Eighteen years ago, as a freshman at Princeton, he came up with the idea to sell worm poop as a natural fertilizer. Szaky turned it into a business, and soon dropped out of college to make it grow.   He convinced Princeton undergraduates to work for free, and persuaded older friends to leave their steady jobs for leadership positions at the company. In its early years, leaning on paltry funds from investors and winnings from entrepreneurship competitions, TerraCycle teetered on the edge of collapse.   But then Szaky convinced big-box retailers like Home Depot and Walmart, which were already stocking established fertilizers like Miracle-Gro, to take a chance on his product. It's easy to see why they might have turned him down. TerraCycle's plant food was not only made from waste but packaged in waste, too: used soda bottles and discarded caps.   While Szaky was chasing meetings with major retailers, other eco-friendly companies and environmentalists were swearing to never work with the likes of Walmart. But Szaky has always believed that in order for his green products to make a difference, he would have to work with — not against — corporate America. He's taking that approach with Loop today.   "My goal consumer is someone in the middle of America who may still even not be convinced on climate change, because if I can get him to participate, then we can really change the world," he said. "This is why we're working with the largest manufacturers, the largest retailers. Because that is what America likes today."   Szaky has always been able to get people's attention.   In 2003, when he was just 23 years old, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ran a short documentary about TerraCycle. In it, Szaky talks openly about his fears and the risk he's taken, revealing that he asked investors for money to build a facility that would help fill nonexistent orders, and that he was pushing a new product he wasn't sure worked. His openness is charming, as is his obvious commitment to the cause: Szaky lugs furniture left behind by Princeton students back to a dilapidated house dedicated to putting up staffers over the summer, and refuses to buy any new packaging — or do anything the "normal" way. Three years later, at age 26, Szaky had landed on the cover of Inc. Magazine, which lauded TerraCycle as "the Coolest Little Start-Up in America."   Since then, he's written four books and maintained his status as a media darling, even launching a TerraCycle reality show called "Human Resources" on the now defunct network Pivot. It lasted for three seasons. Szaky, left, speaks with a coworker in his office. Recycled plastic bottles form a curtain that walls off his office at the TerraCycle headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN)   Szaky, now in his late 30s, is still able to punch above his weight. Two years ago, at the ritzy World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he landed a spot on stage with the CEOs of Walmart, Alibaba and Heineken to discuss the future of consumption. And he is still successful at enticing employees, some of which have taken major pay cuts, to work out of TerraCycle's modest headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey, which is decorated with trash.   Heather Crawford, vice president of marketing and eCommerce for Loop, left a managerial position at Johnson & Johnson to join TerraCycle in November. "Tom is a visionary who genuinely dreams about a waste-free world," she said. "He has these idealistic goals that he drives the whole team towards, and he asks people to do the impossible."   Over the years, TerraCycle evolved, moving on from fertilizer to transforming items that are difficult to recycle into something new. Today, TerraCycle repurposes used batteries, backpacks, coffee capsules, cooking oil and more. The company is doing well: In the first six months of 2019, TerraCycle reported net income of $1.8 million on revenue of $11.2 million. Sales were up 19% from the same period a year earlier, driven in part by new recycling partnerships with Gillette, Williams and Sonoma, Reebok and General Mills.   In September, TerraCycle also launched a car seat recycling event with Walmart. The event proved so popular, Walmart shut it down early, citing an "overwhelming response."   "We have a successful, profitable, growing business," Szaky said. The new venture could change that. With Loop, "we are sort of putting that on the line," Szaky noted.   "We've put close to 10 million of our own dollars into it. We're going to put even more," he added. "Any big idea requires that leap."   Convenience is key   In order for Loop to work, it has to be easy for consumers.   Today, consumers demand convenience, noted Pierce of Packaging Digest. "Without that — even with Tom and all of his strong partners, the consumer packaged goods companies — I don't know that it would work.   Especially when you think of the cost premium for this service," she said. "That convenience angle is everything."   Although Loop products are designed to cost about the same as their traditional counterparts, users do have to put down a deposit when they make a purchase online. The deposit can range from 25 cents to $10, depending on the item.   Consumers get it back unless they break, keep or lose the package. But some customers may be unwilling or unable to put down a deposit upfront. Individual deposits add up, and if people use the service for long periods of time, they won't get that money back for a while.   Szaky, who recognizes that the deposit could be a roadblock for some, aims to make Loop as convenient as possible. His hope is that customers will toss their empties into a used tote just as they would toss their empty containers into the trash. There's no need to wash them first: Loop handles the cleaning. And thanks to the rise of e-commerce, consumers see delivery as the most convenient option already.   Plus, in 2020, Loop products are slated to be available in major retailers like Walgreens and Kroger. That means, in addition to at-home pickup and delivery, consumers will be able to buy and drop off Loop products in person. Ultimately, Szaky wants to build a big enough network to allow customers to pop into one local store to buy a Loop product, and swing by another to drop a Loop package off.   For Szaky, ubiquity will be a marker of success.   "I would sit back and start feeling like we're doing it when I see Loop pop up unconsciously," he said. "I would feel we really got there where it's a common question of, 'Hey, would you like that in disposable or durable?'"   Szaky thinks things are moving in the right direction. Companies that committed to join the pilot with just a few products have added others, and more are in the pipeline. Loop currently includes 120 products and the service adds an average of two new products every week.   When new brands join, their competitors tend to hop on board, as well, afraid of being outdone. For example, Loop launched with reusable Häagen-Dazs ice cream containers, and soon "the biggest ice cream companies, their competitors, called us and said, 'How do we get involved? How do we go even bigger?'" Szaky recalled. This is "what competition is supposed to do, is keep making products better and pushing each other." Nestlé designed a reusable Häagen-Dazs container for Loop, sparking envy from its competitors. (Brinson + Banks for CNN)   Today, Loop operates in parts of France and the East Coast in the United States, and is used by more than 10,000 people. Orders are continuously increasing each week, and repeat order rates are strong, the company says. Next year, the service will launch in London, Toronto and Tokyo, as well as parts of Germany and California.   Scaling up so broadly and so quickly is risky, however.   "One of the things that keeps me up at night is building out the actual operational scale-up plan," said Crawford.   A lot had to happen just to get Loop to the pilot phase. Companies had to develop new durable containers that were easy to clean and use. It took Nestlé 15 tries to get that envy-inducing ice cream container right. Szaky and his corporate partners have to make sure that packages are delivered, collected, cleaned and reshipped in a timely manner — a complex logistical proposition, especially considering how many different companies are involved. Loop currently uses one cleaning facility in Southeast Pennsylvania to process its US-based orders. But as it continues to expand, TerraCycle says it will need to add more facilities in other parts of the country.   For now, the project is small, and the Loop team is taking careful notes on consumer behaviors, complaints and preferences. But if Loop gets as big as Szaky wants it to, the system will have to work, impeccably, on its own.   "All of the moving pieces, logistically, operationally, new facilities in all of these regions and all of the steps and pieces that need to happen in the expansion plan is something that's going to take a tremendous amount of time and attention from our team, and also support from partners," Crawford said.   If things go wrong — orders get held up, items are out of stock, or people feel burdened by yet another shopping platform — people could give up on the idea of reusables.   Historically, consumers have often valued convenience over the environment. Starbucks, for example, has tried for years to get consumers to use reusable cups, selling durable versions of their cup for a few dollars and offering discounts to customers who bring their own mugs. But the company has consistently found that despite its efforts, just a small fraction of consumers actually bring their own cup to the store. Can Loop finally crack the code, convincing consumers to switch to reusables?   Meanwhile, the clock is ticking: companies participating in Loop won't wait forever for the concept to prove out.   Eventually, "their primary concern is going to be return to shareholders," Crawford said. "At some point in this process it needs to become profitable."   Experts are optimistic that this time, things could be different.   With Loop, Szaky's "timing is impeccable," said Pierce. Consumers are looking for solutions to the plastic waste crisis, and Loop could be a good one. Ultimately, companies may go in a different direction, like biodegradable wrapping or package-free grocery aisles instead of reusable containers. Szaky's company TerraCycle transforms hard-to-recycle items, like batteries, backpacks and coffee capsules, into something new. (Mark Kauzlarich for CNN)   No matter what, big corporations will have to seriously reconsider the way their goods are being sold. Unilever said on Monday that it plans to cut its use of non-recycled plastic in half by 2025. To deliver on that promise, the company will have to collect over 660,000 tons of plastic per year, and continue to innovate its product line. In addition to reusable packages, Unilever has tried out soap-like shampoo bars, bamboo toothbrushes and cardboard deodorant sticks, among other things.   "The challenge around packaging is not going to go away," said Tensie Whelan, director of NYU Stern School of Business's Center for Sustainable Business. "Growing regulatory scrutiny of it is not going to go away. Growing consumer concern about it is not going to go away. And growing cost of waste disposal and the environmental impact is not going to go away."   Szaky knows that his partners are in desperate need of a solution. When he first approached companies about Loop, he targeted ones that were featured on a Greenpeace list of worst plastics polluters, because he knew they had a potential public relations crisis on their hands. He's hoping that the scope of the problem will inspire the type of changes needed to make Loop a success.   "Loop is a gargantuan ask," Szaky acknowledged. "We're going into a Procter & Gamble and saying, 'reinvent the packaging of these world-famous products completely, build production lines to fill this reinvented package, oh, and, by the way, I have no proof if anyone's going to buy it at all.'"   And Szaky knows that people are paying attention to what he's doing. Loop has "a very big responsibility," he said. "I think a lot of people are going to think about whether there's a future in reuse by whether we succeed or not."

Stores like Aldi and Trader Joe’s are trying to decrease excess plastic, but experts say it’s not enough. Plastic packaging can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s usually deployed to protect food, preserve freshness, and prevent spoilage and waste, which are all good things. At the same time, supermarkets can’t seem to help themselves from overpackaging items to the point of perversion, like a single banana — which already comes in its own Mother Nature-approved wrapper — plated on a Styrofoam tray and shrink-wrapped in even more plastic. Other forms of plastic appear completely gratuitous. Do pasta boxes really need tiny film windows for previewing the noodles? Supermarkets aren’t the only source of packaging waste, but they’re a major contributor. They’re also where most people interact with brands like Nestlé, which sells more than 1 billion products a day, 98 percent of which come in throwaway formats. When the Break Free from Plastic initiative audited more than 187,000 pieces of trash from 42 countries across six continents last October, the names that reared their heads most frequently were Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and — yes — Nestlé. Supermarkets have been promoting recycling as a way out of this morass, but it hasn’t been enough, according to environmentalists, who say that single-use plastic needs to be purged from the get-go. It’s a concept that a growing breed of “zero-waste” grocers are experimenting with, too. “If your bathtub was overflowing, you wouldn’t reach for a mop to clean it up; you would turn it off at the source,” says David Pinsky, an anti-plastics campaigner at Greenpeace. “And that’s what we need to do on plastics.” LESS THAN 14 PERCENT OF THE NEARLY 86 MILLION TONS OF PLASTIC PACKAGING PRODUCED GLOBALLY EACH YEAR IS RECYCLED The fact of the matter is we’re not doing a good enough job of recapturing plastics, which are made from nonrenewable resources such as crude oil and natural gas and contribute to climate change throughout their life cycle. Less than 14 percent of the nearly 86 million tons of plastic packaging produced globally each year is recycled, and of that, only 2 percent goes into high-value applications. The rest is landfilled, incinerated, or buffeted into the environment, where it clogs up the seas, the beaches, and the digestive tracts of sea life. Much of the trouble with recycling plastic is it’s “incredibly finicky,” says Darby Hoover, a senior resource specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Different municipalities accept different types of plastic, and the little triangle with the number at the bottom of a plastic container — if you can even find it — refers to the type of resin and not if or how it can be recycled. Sometimes, despite a recycling facility’s best efforts, a plastics stream becomes contaminated, which impairs sellability. But even if a facility does get it right, there isn’t always a market to funnel all the different types of plastic. “What’s been happening with China, in particular, is that it was America’s No. 1 buyer of plastic and paper, but now it’s saying that the stuff we send to them needs a much lower contamination rate, and we can’t do that,” Hoover says. Complicating the matter is complex packaging such as Tetra Pak cartons — the type plant-based milks, soups, and broths come in — and Capri Sun-type juice pouches — which contain different layers of material fused together — are even more difficult to reclaim. “So they’ve got aluminum and different types of plastic, then a bunch of glue that holds it all together,” Hoover says. “It’s very, very hard to separate out all those materials and figure out how to recycle any of them.” THE GLOBAL PLASTIC PACKAGING MARKET IS EXPECTED TO SOAR TO $412 BILLION IN 2024 The problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Plastic packaging is a booming industry with a powerful lobbying presence that can block lawmakers from enacting bans on plastic bags, Styrofoam containers, and other landfill fodder. Fueled by growing demand for flexible and functional food and beverage packaging, the global plastic packaging market is expected to soar from a value of $344 billion today to $412 billion in 2024. We throw away most single-use plastics within minutes of use, yet they can persist in the environment for 1,000 years. “We do need to fundamentally rethink the way that we use plastics,” says Sara Wingstrand, project manager of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, which has rallied more than 350 businesses, governments, and other organizations, including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Unilever, Walmart, and Target, in 2018 to support the elimination of unnecessary plastic packaging and transition the rest to reusable, recyclable, and compostable versions by 2025. “Recycling is a part of the solution, but it’s becoming evident that there is no way that we can recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis.” One key hurdle is that supermarkets are often blissfully unaware of how much plastic they’re employing. The material is relatively cheap and it makes up a fraction of a business’s operating expenses, Wingstrand says. And the thing is, you can’t reduce what you haven’t measured. Some supermarkets are trying, though. In South Africa, the supermarket chain Pick and Pay is trialing packaging-free “nude zones,” where customers can bring their own containers for fruits and vegetables that are laser-etched with the supplier code and sell-by date in lieu of plastic stickers. Similar “food in the nude” campaigns are taking place at grocers in New Zealand, which banned single-use plastic bags in July. This past April, Metro, a supermarket chain in Quebec, became Canada’s first major grocer to allow its customers to fill up their own reusable containers with meat, seafood, pastries, and ready-to-eat meals. Shoppers examine bags of salad at a PriceChopper supermarket. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images The United Kingdom, where a “polluter’s tax” on any single-use packaging that doesn’t contain at least 30 percent recycled materials is poised to debut in April 2022, is also making strides. Its major supermarkets have committed to a UK Plastics Pact to design out “problematic or unnecessary” single-use packaging by 2025. Waitrose is piloting refill stations at select stores for pasta, wine and beer, and detergent, and Sainsbury’s plans to introduce refillable packaging “at scale.” As part of its pledge to use only reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by 2025, Aldi has banned black plastic trays, which near-infrared sensors at recycling centers have trouble picking out from a sorting belt. Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket, has convened with its suppliers to examine solutions that may require a design or materials overhaul. It’s even mulling banishing brands that use “excessive or inappropriate” packaging. It should come as no surprise that supermarkets in the US — bolstered by America’s corporate-friendly policies — have lagged behind. “Europe is probably more favorably predisposed to regulation and restrictions,” says Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at GlobalData, an international data-analytics consultancy. (Case in point? The European Union has a roadmap for making all plastic on the European market recyclable by 2030.) “Whereas the US is much more focused on freedoms of companies and individuals, and government is probably a lot more reluctant to legislate on certain things.” “THE [US] GOVERNMENT IS PROBABLY A LOT MORE RELUCTANT TO LEGISLATE ON CERTAIN THINGS” That isn’t to say there has been zero progress. Target is working on ditching expanded polystyrene foam packaging from its own-brand packaging by 2022. Select products in its Everspring line of home essentials are packaged in containers with up to 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic. Costco has eschewed PVC clamshell packaging, which is not recyclable and can leach toxic chemicals when it degrades, for recyclable PET or recycled PET made from water bottles. Straws and Styrofoam meat trays are now verboten at Whole Foods, which is also replacing its hard plastic rotisserie chicken containers with bags that use roughly 70 percent less plastic, a spokesperson says. Walmart, the world’s No.1 brick-and-mortar retailer, aims by 2025 to incorporate at least 20 percent post-consumer recycled content in its own-brand packaging, which will also be 100 percent recyclable, reusable, or industrially compostable. In terms of general merchandise packaging, Walmart says it will work with suppliers to nix PVC by 2020. But a June report by Greenpeace, which rated 20 leading US supermarkets on their efforts to eliminate single-use plastic, found a universal failure to “adequately address the plastic pollution crisis they are contributing to.” In fact, no supermarket scored more than 35 out of a possible 100 points. Even the American iteration of Aldi, which rose to No. 1 for setting out a plastics reduction target and plan, needs to ramp up its ambitions, according to Pinsky. Since 90 percent of the products on its shelves are private label, rather than from name-brand suppliers, Aldi has a bigger say in its packaging decisions. “Aldi’s only committed by 2025 to reduce its plastic footprint by 15 percent,” he says. “So while some supermarkets are starting to take small steps in the right direction, none are acting with the urgency or the ambition that’s needed to truly tackle the plastic pollution crisis.” Transparency, Pinsky says, is a sticking issue. No supermarket, for instance, publicly reports its plastic footprint, which makes it difficult for the public to evaluate progress year over year. Time-bound, comprehensive plans are still few and far between. And some grocers are merely substituting one single-use material for another, as in the case of Trader Joe’s, which drew plaudits earlier this year for plans to strip its stores of 1 million pounds of plastic by removing plastic bags from its checkout counters, switching to compostable produce bags, and replacing Styrofoam trays with recyclable alternatives. But plant-based bioplastics, which stores increasingly favor, can still contribute to microplastic pollution if released into the environment, Pinksy notes, and molded fiberboard could harbor cancer-causing chemicals. “WE NEED TO SHIFT OUR CULTURE BACK TO MORE REUSE SYSTEMS” “It’s clear that recycling or substituting materials is not going to solve this problem; we need to see a focused reduction of plastic production in the first place,” he adds. “We need to shift our culture back to more reuse systems.” One result of the plastics backlash is the idea of the zero-waste supermarket. Brianne Miller, a marine biologist, was so sickened by the swaths of plastic that greeted her in different dive sites around the world — even the remote ones — that she left academia to co-found Nada, a zero-waste grocer that is not only the first of its kind in downtown Vancouver but in all of Canada. At Nada, everything, including fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, cheeses, nut butters, and sauces, is sold loose. Customers can load up their own jars, containers, and drawstring bags, or pick up cleaned and sanitized ones that are available for sale. Depending on what they need, they can pick up a barrel of crackers or just a handful. But customers are just one piece of Nada’s master plan; the store also works with its suppliers to deliver their products free of disposable packaging. “In many instances, suppliers are dropping off products every couple days or every week, so it’s quite easy, for example, to have things like coffee beans dropped off in a reusable Rubbermaid tote,” Miller says. “And then when the next shipment comes in, the container goes back to the supplier, and then it’s refilled and reused again, so we have this circular loop of containers that are coming and going from our store.” Nada sources as close to the store as possible, which helps with the minimalist approach, since products don’t have to be coddled across vast distances. “Instead of shipping cucumbers from across the country, we have the local farm, so that packaging isn’t necessary in the first place,” she says. Zero-waste supermarkets, especially full-service ones like Nada, may seem like an answer to our plastic packaging problem, except they’re still a rarity. In.gredients, an East Austin business that billed itself as America’s first zero-waste grocery store, shuttered permanently in 2018. There is a smattering of others in London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Hong Kong, but they are largely boutique outfits with narrow aisles and more hipster appeal than options. For the vast majority of people, single-use plastics are still an inescapable aspect of their shopping reality. One other solution is a return to the old “milkman delivery” model of yore. The brainchild of TerraCycle, a New Jersey-based “waste solution development” firm, Loop offers popular products — think Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Hidden Valley ranch dressing, Tropicana orange juice, and Quaker Oats oatmeal — in durable glass and aluminum tubs designed to be returned, cleaned, and refilled. Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Danone are just some of the marquee names that have thrown in their support. Loop has also roped in a number of retail partners, including Kroger and Walgreens in the United States, Tesco in the United Kingdom, and Carrefour in France. “It’s super important to us to meet consumers where they’re already shopping,” says Heather Crawford, Loop’s vice president of marketing and e-commerce. Unlike with bulk or zero-waste supermarkets, customers don’t have to sling their own containers or wash them, which could help adoption. “People want a better, more sustainable option with less waste, but they’re not always willing to change their behaviors to get there,” she says. “Loop removes all of the friction from the systems that exist in the current zero-waste solution.” Tory Gundelach, vice president of retail insights at the consulting agency Kantar, sees a growing desire from customers for forward-thinking efforts such as Loop. “Younger shoppers, particularly, are becoming more attuned to the effect of their actions on the environment or society as a whole,” she says. “Shoppers increasingly want to see the retailers and brands they engage reflect their own personal values.” Nearly two-thirds of millennials and Gen Z-ers say they prefer “brands that have a point of view and stand for something,” Kantar’s research has found. And therein lies supermarkets’ business proposition. Reducing packaging through resource-efficient design or losing it altogether can save money on raw materials and shipping costs — always a plus for the bottom line — but it can also win over a demographic that is only going to grow into its spending power. “Shoppers are telling us, ‘I’m putting my dollars against the retailers and the brands that feel like they have values that line up with my values,’” Gundelach says. “And to do that, of course, brands and retailers have to put out what their values are that they stand for.”

Don't be fooled by their squishy outsides. Eve Lom Cleansing Oil Capsules. Photo: Courtesy There is a revolution happening in skin care, and it's occurring inside tiny, squishy spheres. Beauty "capsules" — oils, serums and powders housed in self-contained, monodose pods — are popping up everywhere in the beauty market, it seems, from high-tech treatment systems to cleansers. They might not look like much, but inside those rubbery orbs are unique formulas and textures, not to mention of host of eco-friendly possibilities. They’re not a completely new idea, per se — witness Elizabeth Arden's iconic Ceramide Capsules, born in the ancient times of 1990 A.D. Since then, however, we've mostly realized the folly of dumping small plastic beads into waterways and capsules have been largely viewed as a relic of the past. But that view has shifted of late. "Encapsulated beauty products could be more or less sustainable than comparable products that are not encapsulated," explains Mia Davis, Director of Mission for Credo Beauty, "providing they are made of naturally-derived, biodegradable casings." And as consumers become increasingly diligent about supporting brands with sustainable practices, that's exactly where beauty companies are headed. Elizabeth Arden Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules. Photo: Courtesy Take, for example, the aforementioned Elizabeth Arden. These past few years, the brand doubled down on its capsule-based heritage, launching the Advanced Ceramide Capsules in 2017 and a retinol version in 2018. In September of this year, it launched a new Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules Radiance Renewal Serum. The main selling point for these single-serving capsules is that they take an already potent ingredient, and remove the need for things like fillers or stabilizers that would minimize their strength. As New York City-based dermatologist Dr. Dendy Engleman explains, "[Elizabeth Arden Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules] are formulated in an oil base, so it is much better absorbed [by skin], and up to 178 times more potent than vitamin C in an aqueous base. Because the formula is encapsulated, it is not degraded by light and air." Interestingly enough, the brand claims that its capsules have been biodegradable since day one — a practice it is continuing to improve upon as green tech advances. "The Vitamin C Ceramide Capsules Radiance Renewal Serum are vegetable- and mineral-based," explains Kelly Quinn, Arden's Senior Marketing Manager. "They also meet industry standard guidelines for biodegradability — drop it in water and watch it dissolve." Pubic-grooming brand Fur went the extra biodegradable mile by introducing a casing for its new Bath Drops, which debuted in October, that is also certified vegan. It's made from red seaweed, a material the brand claims is an environmentally friendly version of the gelatin used to encase bath beads from days of yore. Drop it in the tub and it dissolves, releasing its blend of conditioning oils and the brand's signature clary sage oil to moisturize skin and soothe post-shaving irritation. Fur Bath Drops. Photo: Courtesy Another benefit of biodegradability as it pertains to these types of products is that it forces formulators to come up with ways to make products anhydrous (a.k.a. water-free), mostly removing the need for preservatives; no water means no threat of mold. And, being monodose (as in, one application per capsule) means no worries about degradation or bacteria growth from exposure to air, and therefore less product waste in general. Luxury skin-care brand Eve Lom is no stranger to anhydrous products — its cult-classic Cleanser is water-free — so the recent introduction of Cleansing Oil Capsules takes that bestselling balm and translates it into a liquid encapsulated form. The casing is made from a vegetable-based material that's fully biodegradable, says Eve Lom Master Esthetician Erica Maccallum, and features the brand's signature blend of essential oils from chamomile, eucalyptus, hops and clove. Each tiny bead has enough product to completely remove dirt, oil and makeup from the skin. That single-dose ideology is also a less obvious green move: Brands tout it as convenient for travel and making application dummy-proof (my words, not theirs) because each capsule is one use. And that's all true. But what's less often discussed is the fact that this method can prevent the impulse for overdoing it on a product, cutting down on waste and enabling consumers to be more conservative in their use. However, as Davis warns, everything isn't sunshine and rainbows in capsule world. "In theory, capsules could reduce waste, but it is also likely to lead to more packaging, not less," she asserts. "In all likelihood, the beads will go into a jar or bottle, and most of those will go into a box." One alternative that does, indeed, cut down on packaging and reduce waste is present in Unilever's Signal oral-care line. As part of TerraCycle's Loop initiative (TL;DR version: The modern-day milkman scenario where you order products, use them, then have the service pick up the used containers to be cleaned, sterilized and put back in the supply cycle to be used all over again. It's a pretty cool concept worth reading up on.), the company created a unique chewable toothpaste tab. Simply pop one of the Signal 8 Integral Tooth Tabs in your mouth, then start brushing — no water needed. The container itself is made up of a glass jar with a plastic cap with ceramic printing, which gives it added durability to stand up to repeated sterilization and washing by Loop facilities. Sadly, it's currently only available through Loop's Paris program, but here's hoping Unilever eventually adapts it for the U.S. market. As Davis says, in theory capsules have a lot of potential, but it's up to brands to go that extra mile if they really want to make this category a sustainable alternative for the future. With the ability to increase potency, prevent product degradation, decrease reliance on plastics, and reduce product waste, capsules are a great first step toward a different kind of environmental responsibility. "A bio-based casing that could biodegrade in the environment over time is the right start," says Davis. "A clean formula with reduced reliance on preservatives, which can be done because the product is protected from natural breakdown and contamination, is great. And, ingredients like vitamin C could be kept more active and potent. But, brands using this format [need to] prioritize one exterior package, not two, since breakage and leakage is not nearly as much of a concern with this type of product. There is huge potential if this is done right."

Dive Brief:

• Unilever has committed to halving its virgin plastic use by 2025 by increasing the amount of recycled plastic in the packaging for its products and developing alternative packaging materials.
• The company will also boost its collection and recycling of plastic packaging, aiming for 600,000 metric tons per year by 2025 — slightly less than the 700,000 metric tons the company produces, the company announced in a press release Monday.
• "This demands a fundamental rethink in our approach to our packaging and products. It requires us to introduce new and innovative packaging materials and scale up new business models, like re-use and re-fill formats, at an unprecedented speed and intensity," Unilever CEO Alan Jope said in a statement. 

Dive Insight: Packaging is a major contributor to plastic waste. It represented 36% of all plastic production in 2015 and its share of the waste stream is even larger. A 2017 study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara; University of Georgia; and the Sea Education Association found most packaging plastic enters the waste stream within one year of production. Jope's statement explains the extent of the work ahead for Unilever, and any manufacturer looking to substantially reduce virgin plastic use. The company's steps to meet these goals will include:

• Investment and partnerships in waste collection and processing.
• The purchase and use of recycled plastics in its packaging.
• Participation in extended producer responsibility schemes where Unilever directly pays for the collection of its packaging.

Unilever is not alone in making drastic plastic reductions. PepsiCo pledged to reduce virgin plastic in its products by 35% by 2025. Walmart, with its private-label brands, and Keurig Dr. Pepper are working toward full recyclability. Recycling players like Terracycle, with its waste-free e-commerce platform Loop (Unilever and PepsiCo are partners) are working on solutions for reducing single-use or non-recyclable plastic packaging, but so far no radical solutions have scaled. Greenpeace is skeptical that Unilever's Monday announcement, or any of the existing corporate initiatives to reduce single-use plastics in the supply chain, will make a real dent in the fundamental problem. "While this is a step in the right direction, for a company that uses 700,000 metric tons of plastic annually, Unilever’s continued emphasis on collection, alternative materials, and recycled content will not result in the systemic shift required to solve the growing plastic pollution problem," said Graham Forbes, global project leader at Greenpeace USA in a public statement reacting to Unilever's pledge. Just days before the Monday announcement, Greenpeace published a report calling out such corporate efforts as "false solutions" that don't actually move away from the single-use plastic paradigm in any real way. Unilever's actions to date — working on collection in developing countries and creating refillable products in some markets — are not enough, according to Greenpeace. "We encourage Unilever to prioritize its efforts upstream by redesigning single-use plastic and packaging out of its business model, and being more specific about the investment it will be making in reusable and refillable alternatives," said Forbes.