Tesco Launches Loop Recycle Program in Stores

(Credit: Tesco)

by | Sep 13, 2021

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(Credit: Tesco)

As British grocery store chain Tesco continues to grow its sustainability program, it has implemented a zero-waste packaging system at 10 of its stores in England.

The Tesco program offered by TerraCycle’s reusable packaging platform Loop will include 88 products. The grocer says if the program is successful with consumers, packaging could be used and reused more than 2.5 million times a year.

Loop launched its service in the UK with an online offering withTesco in the spring of 2020 with plans to eventually bring it to brick and mortar stores.

Tesco, the UK’s largest grocery chain, implemented a plan to reduce plastic waste in 2019. Since then it says it has reduced a billion pieces of plastic from its UK business and will reduce another half a billion this year. The company also says it has reduced materials in its packaging by 2,000 metric tons and has launched soft plastic recycling centers in all of its large stores.

“We are determined to tackle plastic waste and one of the ways we can help is by improving reuse options available to customers,” Tesco CEO Ken Murphy says.

With the Loop program, consumers pay a small refundable deposit and buy products in packaging that can be returned to the stores to be cleaned and reused and then can claim their refund on an app.

Loop introduced a pilot program in 2019 and in late 2020 completed a series A capital raise of $25 million with investors including Proctor & Gamble, Nestle and Sky Ocean Ventures. Loop now includes more than 80 brands and 400 products with more than 100,000 people signed up for the offering worldwide.

The program is available in 21 countries, including the US, France, Canada and Japan and TerraCycle has plans to launch itin Australia later this year.

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