TerraCycle Launches Loop Circular Delivery Service with Major Brands

(Photo: TerraCycle’s circular delivery system Loop. Credit: LoopStore.com)

by | Jan 24, 2019

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Loop

(Photo: TerraCycle’s circular delivery system Loop. Credit: LoopStore.com)

Global recycling organization TerraCycle unveiled a new circular delivery service for consumers called Loop. The coalition supporting this reusable and returnable system includes Procter & Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo, Mondelez International, Nestlé, Danone, and UPS.

TerraCycle describes Loop as a circular shopping platform that replaces single-use disposable packaging with durable, reusable packaging. Consumers subscribe and order products that get delivered by UPS in a specially designed shipping tote instead of a box.

Goods arrive in durable, reusable or fully recyclable packaging made from materials such as alloys, glass, and engineered plastics, according to UPS and TerraCycle. Once the products — such as ice cream, shampoo, and spices — are used, customers place empties back into the tote, schedule a free pick-up, and the system makes sure the products get automatically replenished.

“Loop hygienically cleans and sanitizes the empty packaging you send back so they are ready for reuse, instead of ending up as waste after a single-use,” the company’s site says.

The system debuted at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Loop will not just eliminate the idea of packaging waste, but greatly improve the product experience and shopping convenience,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. A pilot program is slated for Paris and the metro New York area this year so the system can be optimized.

P&G announced that its brands Pantene, Tide, Cascade, Crest, Ariel, Febreze, Oral B, Gillette, Venus, Pampers, and Always will be part of Loop. Nestlé says that Häagen-Dazs is debuting a reusable stainless steel double-walled ice cream container with the launch of the service. Unilever’s Dove, Axe, Degree, REN Clean Skincare, Hellmann’s, Love Beauty and Planet, Love Home and Planet, and Seventh Generation are also participating.

“We want to put an end to the current ‘take-make-dispose’ culture and are committed to taking big steps towards designing our products for re-use,” said Unilever CEO Alan Jope.

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