If you carry your own shopping bags and refill your water bottles, Loop might be your next step in the movement to cut back consumer waste.
The loopstore.com service, launched by the Trenton-based recycling company TerraCycle, delivers Cascade detergent, Hidden Valley dressing, Häagen-Dazs ice cream and other branded products to customers in reusable glass and steel containers. Once they’re empty, Loop retrieves the containers in a special tote. Customers pay a refundable deposit on the products; shipping (including return shipping) runs from $10–$20 per order. Most orders are delivered within 48 hours.
“We want to make reusability attractive and simple,” says Anthony Rossi, vice president of global business development for Loop. TerraCycle founder/CEO Tom Szaky is founder and chief executive of Loop.
Loop launched its pilot program in May, serving 5,000 households in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
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TerraCycle announced Loop at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, partnering with Kroger and Walgreens for the mid-Atlantic region, with deliveries through UPS. More than 100 brands have committed, though not all are part of the service yet. Selling through Loop means rethinking packaging and labeling.
Loop’s plastic-free vision is on trend. Numerous towns around New Jersey have banned plastic bags, though a statewide ban has stalled in the Senate.
Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, says changing attitudes about recycling is crucial to the fight against climate change. He applauds companies like TerraCycle for leading the way.
Says Rossi: “We are a mission-based company, and our mission is to eliminate waste.”