A coalition including many of the world’s largest consumer product companies, along with international recycling leader TerraCycle, today unveiled a global, first-of-its-kind, shopping system called Loop. The initiative is designed to change the world’s reliance on single-use packaging, offer a convenient and enhanced circular solution to consumers, while securing meaningful environmental benefits.

Announced at the Davos World Economic Forum, Loop will enable consumers to responsibly consume a variety of products in customized, brand specific durable packaging that is collected, leaned, refilled and reused. The content, if recoverable, will be either recycled or reused.

Terracycle CEO Tom Szaky explains the details of the Loop program in the Packaging Perspectives podcast below. 

“As a response to the global challenge in managing waste and the opportunity to improve consumers’ experience, a group of global brands, retailers and infrastructure companies, along with the World Economic Forum, have come together to create a new way to more  responsibly consume products.” says TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “Loop will not just eliminate the idea of packaging waste, but greatly improve the product experience and the convenience in how we shop. Through Loop, consumers can now responsibly consume products in specially designed durable, reusable or fully recyclable packaging made from materials like alloys, glass and engineered plastics. When a consumer returns the packaging, it is refilled, or the content is reused or recycled through groundbreaking technology.”

The idea for this new shopping system was founded at the World Economic Forum by TerraCycle and consumer product companies Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever, Mars Petcare, The Clorox Company, The Body Shop, Coca-Cola, European Partners, Mondelēz International, Danone, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Lesieur, BIC, Beiersdorf, RB, People Against Dirty, Nature’s Path, Thousand Fell, Greenhouse, Grilliance, Burlap & Barrel Single Origin Spices, Reinberger Nut Butter, CoZie and Preserve.

Additional partners are leading food retailer Carrefour as the founding retailer and the first to believe in Loop’s model, with leading UK retailer Tesco to pilot Loop in the U.K. later in the year; primary logistics and transportation company UPS and sustainable resource management company Suez.

“Loop is a disruptive solution led by a visionary entrepreneur,” says Laurent Vallée, general secretary of Carrefour Group. “Carrefour has a strong commitment to eliminating waste and plastic. It was a natural fit for Carrefour to commit to this great project, thus becoming the first player in the retail space to join Loop. We believe our clients are increasingly concerned with unnecessary waste and we expect them to embrace this new solution. We hope other international manufacturers and retailers will join us to adopt new standards and fight waste.”

This approach to shopping was made possible as a result of innovation investments made by the founding partners' commitment to developing more circular supply chains from package design to manufacturing through consumer use. The aim is to offer a zero-waste option for the world’s most popular consumer products while maintaining affordability, improving convenience and returning used disposable or durable items to a circular life cycle either through reuse or recycling.

The environmental benefits of Loop durable packaging vs. single-use packaging have been proven and verified in Life Cycle Assessments under usage pattern assumptions that will be further validated in pilots scheduled to launch this spring in France and the northeastern United States. Additional markets are expected to launch throughout 2019 and 2020.

“At P&G, we are building on 180 years of innovation and world-class consumer insight to enable responsible consumption at scale,” says Virginie Helias, P&G vice president and chief sustainability officer. “Through leading brands such as Pantene, Tide and Cascade, we have developed new durable and refillable packaging that is delivered in a waste-free and hassle-free way as part of the LOOP platform. We’re proud to partner with TerraCycle as the first CPG company to be part of this transformative program, which is just one of the many ways we are delivering on our Ambition 2030 goals to accelerate sustainable innovation and drive circular solutions.”

Nestlé CEO for Zone Americas Laurent Freixe adds, “Loop provides a much-needed innovation platform, challenging companies to take a fresh look at our value chains and integrate reusable product packaging as part of our efforts to waste-reduction. It’s a critical part of our commitment to work with consumers to protect our planet for future generations.”

How Loop works:

• SHOP: Consumers will go to the Loop websites, www.loopstore.com, www.maboutiqueloop.fr or Loop partner retailer’s websites and shop for trusted brands now redesigned to be free of packaging waste.  

• RECEIVE: Consumers receive their durable products in Loop’s exclusively designed state-of-the-art shipping tote that eliminates the need for single-use shipping materials like cardboard boxes.
• ENJOY:  Consumers experience elegance and convenience all while eliminating the idea of throw-away packaging waste.
• WE PICK UP: There is no need to clean and dispose of the package; as consumers finish their products, they place the empty package into one of their Loop Totes. Loop will pick up directly from their home.
• WE CLEAN: Loop’s team of scientists has developed custom cleaning technologies so that each package may be safely reused.
• WE REFILL, RECYCLE OR REUSE: Loop promptly replenishes products as needed and returns the refilled shipping tote to the consumer. If there is recoverable used product such as diapers, pads, razors or brush parts, they will be recovered to be reused or recycled.

Leading Companies Launch Returnable Packaging for Everyday Products

A discussion with Tom Szaky, Terracycle’s CEO

Listen to the podcast here! click here.

To see all podcasts that have been recorded as part of the Packaging Perspectives series, click here.

TerraCycle is an innovative waste management company with a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. Operating across 21 countries, it partners with leading consumer product companies, retailers, cities and facilities to recycle products and packages that would otherwise end up landfilled or incinerated. In addition, TerraCycle works with leading consumer product companies to integrate hard to recycle waste streams, such as ocean plastic, into their products and packaging. www.terracycle.com