Best news ever! At the conference in Davos Switzerland last week, 25 of the world’s largest brands committed to using refillable, reusable containers. Say goodbye to single-use packaging! Major brands such as Axe and Dove deodorants, Quaker cereal, Tropicana Tide and Häagen-Dazs ice cream could be available in glass or stainless steel containers if a pilot project proves successful.
This initiative is called Loop and is a collaboration with TerraCycle. The pilot project will start in May of this year where 5,000 shoppers in New York and Paris will have access to the packaging. Shoppers will have to sign up in advance. The pilot will include Toronto, Tokyo and San Francisco by 2020.
If these pilot projects are successful, these and other products will be available in reusable packaging on the shelves of your local stores. Shoppers pay a deposit for the reusable packaging when they order the products online. The products are delivered to their doors in a reusable tote. Once they are done with the products, they leave them outside in the tote for UPS drivers to collect. The containers don’t need to be clean and the deposit will be refunded even if the container is damaged.
From CNN’s report on Loop,
“[TerraCycle CEO] Tom Szaky acknowledged that it’s a lot to ask people to use yet another retail website. He hopes that Loop will eventually be integrated into existing online shops, including Amazon. ‘We’re not trying to harm or cannibalize retailers,’ Szaky said. ‘We’re trying to offer a plug-in that could make them better.'”
This is an incredible step forward for retail and these brands have the ability to influence the way we shop. If we don’t produce garbage, it won’t end up in the oceans and rivers where it poses a threat to animals and humans.
Visit Loop for more information.