Food and drink firms join Loop waste-free shopping platform

A coalition of food and drink companies, along with recycling firm TerraCycle, has unveiled a new online shopping concept that aims to challenge the reliance on single-use packaging.

Called Loop, the initiative seeks to enable shoppers to responsibly consume a variety of products in customised, brand-specific packaging that is collected, cleaned, refilled and reused. The content, if recoverable, will be either recycled or reused.

The idea was formed at the World Economic Forum by TerraCycle alongside companies such as Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever, Mars Petcare, Coca-Cola European Partners, Mondelēz International, Danone, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, Carrefour and Tesco.

TerraCycle said the new 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.

The initiative looks 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.

Pilot launches of the project will take place this spring in France and the north-east of the US. Additional markets are expected to launch throughout 2019 and 2020.

TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky said: “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.”

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 ground-breaking technology.”