TerraCycle Launches Loop Circular Delivery Service

I’m trying to understand blockchain and my head is spinning a bit so let me go back to more familiar matters such as plastic recycling.

According to recycling company TerraCycle, it has launched a new circular delivery service for consumers called Loop, which is supported by consumer products and food companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo, Mondelez International, Nestlé, Danone, Carrefour, SUEZ, and UPS, among others. This system brings together major brands and retailers with the idea of shifting from a model that is disposable (where packaging is thrown away or recycled after use) to one that is durable (where packaging is reused and any leftover product is either recycled or reused).

This system brings back the idea of product packaging that can be returned and refilled like “the milkman of the 1950s” where back then, milk was delivered to your door in glass bottles, and when these were empty, they were left outside, collected by the milkman, washed and refilled. The goal is to develop supply chains that are more ‘circular’ from design through to consumer use.

How does it work? Consumers can reportedly buy online directly from LOOP’s website (I’ve already signed up by the way) or from a partner retailer.  They get their products delivered in a reusable tote – this also eliminates the need for single-use shipping materials like cardboard boxes. Once they have finished the product, LOOP picks it up from their home, replenishes products as needed and returns the refilled shipping tote to the consumer.

According to Terracycle, Loop will come in three models. The first is where consumers shop through the Loop website for products and Loop arranges the delivery and pick-up. The second integrated model is that products are ordered through a partner retailer’s website, delivered in the usual way and the same driver picks up the empty container. And, the third model is integrated in store, where the consumer buys the products in-store and drops off empty containers. The entire process is handled by TerraCycle, from sale and delivery to package return and cleaning. TerraCycle is the online retailer, buying wholesale and selling retail. The package remains the property of the brand.

UPS and TerraCycle collaborated to design outer packaging with protective dividers inside that can handle liquids, dry goods, and personal care products. The tote is made with materials that offer easy cleaning for reuse.

Eventually, Loop will expand to include brick-and-mortar retailers — Carrefour and Tesco in Europe have signed on and expect to introduce Loop products in their stores later this year; a U.S. retail partner hasn’t yet been named. In that in-store version, consumers can bring empties back in a QR-embedded container provided by Loop.

In May, it will be available in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in the US and in the Paris metro area in France. Additional markets are expected to launch throughout 2019 and 2020.

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.