Circular Economy. Zero-waste shopping platform Loop provides “packaging as a service”.

Source: UPS

Zero-waste shopping platform Loop combines startup-spirit with market leader knowhow

 

Thomas Reiner | 31.05.2019

How to avoid disposable packaging while offering consumers a simple and environmentally friendly solution for used product packaging? The newly launched zero-waste shopping platform Loop does just that.

At the heart of the Loop initiative is a shopping platform that combines a delivery service with a pick-up service according to the “Milkman model”.

In the first step, consumers buy the goods in a specially developed reusable packaging by the brand manufacturers on the platform and have them delivered.

When the product is used up, Loop picks up the emptied packaging, cleans it and delivers it to the product manufacturers, where the cycle starts again.

At the core, this also means the following for consumers: they only buy the product itself. The packaging remains in the possession of the product manufacturers, who can now use it several times and thus significantly extend their lifespan. The packaging changes from being the product (purchase) to the service (service). “Packaging as a service”.

Another advantage of Loop: The specially developed reusable packaging reduces the expenses and problems associated with recycling.

Behind Loop are the US startup TerraCycle, UPS and currently 25 companies, which also include large consumer goods manufacturers such as Nestlé, Unilever, Beiersdorf, Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.

The pilot phase of Loop will be launched in the spring of this year with around 300 products in the metropolitan areas of New York and Paris. Next it will be London’s turn. Currently, the platform is only available to a limited number of consumers who need to register in advance. For Greater Paris, the limit for the pilot phase has been set at 5,000 consumers.

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