Our thinking

In the Loop

17 July, 2020

It’s often said that you must kiss many frogs before finding a prince. Here comes yet another frog to kiss in the quest to eliminate single-use plastic: Loop made its UK debut this week.

What is Loop? It’s TerraCycle’s latest way of eliminating the idea of waste, launched this week all over the UK. It is the first online shopping service that will deliver a selection of branded food, drink, home and personal care products in reusable packaging.

The concept of reusable packaging may be new for younger generations, although the idea of milk delivered to your door in glass bottles (which never disappeared entirely) is having a rennaissance. Loop and partners such as Unilever, PepsiCo and Heinz have been working hard to enable online shopping to be waste-free. The only difference here is instead of putting the packaging in your recycling bin, you send it back to be cleaned, refilled and reused.

We also hear the plan is for these new packaging formats to be found in Tesco aisles soon, meaning the project is set to grow and be possible at scale. It will never have been easier to be zero-waste and sounds like the kind of pilot that should be given a shot.

Although Loop may be yet another attempt help reduce society’s insatiable appetite for single-use plastic, here at Good Business we believe this frog is worth kissing; it might just be the one to help us live in the loop!

By Marie Guérinet