A coalition of the largest consumer product companies, along with international recycling leader TerraCycle, recently unveiled a global, first-of-its-kind, shopping system called Loop™. The initiative was 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 World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting, Loop will enable consumers to responsibly consume a variety of products in customized, brand-specific durable packaging that is collected, cleaned, refilled and reused. The content, if recoverable, will be either recycled or reused.
The idea for Loop was founded at the World Economic Forum by TerraCycle and consumer product companies Procter & Gamble, Nestle, PepsiCo, Unilever, Mars Petcare, The Clorox Company, The Body Shop, Coca-Cola European Partners, Mondel?z 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 UK later in the year, primary logistics and transportation company UPS and sustainable resource management company Suez.
This approach to shopping was made possible as a result of innovation investments made by the founding partners and their commitment to developing more circular supply chains from package design to manufacturing through consumer use. The aim was 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 in the spring in France and the northeastern United States. Additional markets are expected to launch throughout 2019 and 2020.
“As a response to the global challenge in managing waste and the opportunity to improve consumers’ experience, a group of committed global brands, retailers, infrastructure companies, along with the World Economic Forum have come together to create a new way to more responsibly consume products.” said 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 speciallydesigned 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.”
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