According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 95% of plastic packaging is used only once. That means that millions of tons of packaging end up in incinerators, landfills or worse, in the natural environment after a single use. This research also states that in a worst-case scenario ocean packaging plastics waste could reach 600,000 million tons in 2040. More clean-ups and better recycling are not seen as solving this problem sufficiently. Plus there is a big consumer appetite for plastic waste reduction that is currently not sufficiently met.

Loop champions a prefill packaging system to tackle single use packaging. The materials chosen are durable - such as steel, aluminum or glass - and reusable for at least ten use cycles, even though Loop hopes that some will be reusable up to 100 times. Packaging designs are put forward by the partnering goods companies and approved by Loop. The overall requirement is that packaging needs to look attractive and preferably have a value-adding feature, for example, containers that keep ice cream cooler for longer. 

The company operates in different countries with different approaches to the market. In some countries, e.g. the US, Loop provides home delivery services in other countries like the UK customers can pick up Loop packaged products in partnering stores. The biggest cooperation in the UK is with Tesco at the time of writing. For entry into a new market Loop has always opted for an online store option i.e home delivery. Followed sometimes as in the case of the UK by an in-store pilot before eventually hoping to scale out to all the relevant stores in a country.  

At a Tesco store in the UK the customer can find prefilled packaged products at a Loop fixture, known as a “Reuse Station”. After choosing, customers pay a deposit (starting at 20p) on each prefilled product at checkout. The deposit is refunded via an app when customers return the packaging to a collection point in the store. Here it will be collected by Loop staff and taken to a cleaning site. Specific cleaning protocols are designed for every unique product category. The packaging is cleaned at the highest standards while using as little water and energy as possible.

In October 2021 Tesco offered a prefilled Loop range of 88 products. These products include well-known brands such as Persil, Fever-Tree, Carex, Tetley Tea and BrewDog. Tesco also included 35 own-brand essentials in the Loop packaged range; products such as pasta, rice, oil and sugar.

As of October 2021 Loop fixtures were set up in ten Tesco stores in the east of England. Tesco says “that if customers in these stores switch their recyclable tomato ketchup, cola and washing up liquid bottles to the reusable alternatives, the packaging would be used and reused over 2.5 million times a year”.

According to Stephen Clarke of Loop Europe: “A reusable bottle in the Loop model has the same impact as a product sold in a traditional disposable packaging at a physical retail location at two cycles. At five cycles, so you use the same container five times, Loop saves 50% of the environmental impacts, which is basically measured on carbon.”

Materials used for the packaging are easy to recycle after their final use and can be used in the next development of the containers after their initial use.

The Tesco in-store Loop fixture offering follows a year-long online pilot, launched in July 2020, that allowed customers to order and return products in reusable packaging from home.

The consumer reactions to Loop packaged products in the ten Tesco stores are being monitored and will prove pivotal in refining the Loop offering. The aim is to introduce Loop fixtures across more stores. 

In Oct 2021, Loop UK partnered with McDonald’s to test a new reusable cup model for hot beverages. Loop UK has also partnered with Lyreco, a global office supplies and workplace solutions company. Lyreco aims to distribute reusable packaged products such as hand soap in offices they supply. 

Loop started in 2019 in the US and France. It is also available in Canada and Japan and plans to enter additional countries such as Australia.

Photo by Towfiqu Barbhuiya on Unsplash