No more plastic: Loop delivers food, household products in reusable bottles

There’s a new way to buy everyday cleaning and personal care products — and it’s one that won’t leave you with a pile of plastic bottles when the shampoo or laundry detergent is drained.

It’s called Loop, and the company’s founder, Tom Szaky, said the concept is “like a reboot of the milkman model.” Its overall goal is to cut down on waste by eliminating disposable packaging.

“Today we live in a single-use world, and we spend a huge amount of energy extracting petroleum from the ground and making our plastics and our other single-use items … And while some are recyclable, recycling today exists in the U.S. at a relatively low rate,” said Szaky, who launched Loop in select cities in May and recently expanded its service to include D.C. and Maryland.

Häagen-Dazs ice cream is one of the products you can buy in the Loop store. The ice cream comes in a reusable stainless steel, double-wall container. (Courtesy Loop)

Clorox wipes in a reusable container from Loop. (Courtesy Loop)

Orders are shipped and delivered in a durable tote, and when the containers are empty, customers send them back for a refill or a returned deposit. (Courtesy Loop)

P&G and other large consumer goods companies are coming together to test Loop—a circular shopping solution with reusable packaging, often called a zero-waste shopping model. Loop offers many household items—from Tide™ detergent to Pantene™ shampoo to Cascade™ pacs—all in durable, reusable packaging that can be ordered online. After using the products, consumers put the empty containers in a Loop tote on their doorstep. The containers are then picked up by a delivery service, cleaned and refilled, and shipped out to consumers again. Loop is designed to be more sustainable than single-use packaging ordered on-line and provide convenience and affordability. — Tide laundry detergent is another product available in Loop’s store. (Courtesy Loop)

The latest data, from 2015, show the country’s recycling rate is about 35%. It’s estimated the average American tosses out 4.48 pounds of trash each day, which in 2015 added up to 262.4 million tons of waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Courtesy Loop)

In its first four weeks, Szaky said Loop had just under 10,000 customers. It has plans to expand to the U.K., Canada, Germany, Japan and Australia in 2020 and to grow its store’s offerings from about 100 products to 400 by the end of the year. (Courtesy Loop)

Pantene shampoo and conditioner are available in Loop’s online store. (Courtesy Loop)

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The latest data, from 2015, show the country’s recycling rate is about 35%. It’s estimated the average American tosses out 4.48 pounds of trash each day, which in 2015 added up to 262.4 million tons of waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“And then there’s a huge amount of stuff — from our coffee cups, to our candy wrappers, to our cookie packages and our chip bags — that unfortunately, are not recyclable whatsoever.”

Here’s how Loop works: Customers order products from Loop’s website — the store includes everything from Hidden Valley ranch dressing, to Häagen-Dazs ice cream, to Clorox wipes, to Pantene shampoo — and pay a deposit for the product’s refillable glass or metal bottle.

Orders are shipped and delivered in a durable tote, and when the containers are empty, customers send them back for a refill or a returned deposit.

“When we buy a bag of potato chips, we’re also buying the bag, and we own it. And when we buy a coffee, we’re also buying the coffee cup. Yet, do we really want to own these things?” said Szaky, who is also the head of recycling company TerraCycle.

“What we’re trying to say with Loop is: How do we solve the root cause of waste? [It’s] this idea of using something once and instead of us owning the packaging in the end, the consumer product company owns the package and we just borrow it.”

The price for some products in Loop’s store are more expensive than one might find in a conventional retail store. For example, a container of Clorox wipes is $5.49 on Loop and $4.99 at Target. However, Szaky expects the prices of all products to be on-par with conventional stores as the concept grows.

In its first four weeks, Szaky said Loop had just under 10,000 customers. It has plans to expand to the U.K., Canada, Germany, Japan and Australia in 2020 and to grow its store’s offerings from about 100 products to 400 by the end of the year.