Innovation & Technology Circular Economy

Loop Expands Into Brick-and-Mortar Stores Worldwide

The reusable packaging platform’s transition from ecommerce to in-store marks the conclusion of its hugely successful pilot and the beginning of Loop’s next phase of growth, which will see it available in-store across five countries and on four continents.

Published 3 years ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Loop/Facebook

Reusable packaging platform Loop, launched by TerraCycle in 2019 via an e-commerce model, is now being offered in-store with some of the world’s largest retailers — including Carrefour (France), Tesco (UK), AEON (Japan), Kroger (US), and Woolworths (Australia). The transition marks the conclusion of Loop’s hugely successful pilot and the beginning of the reuse platform’s next phase of growth, which will see the platform available in-store across five countries and on four continents.

“Loop’s goal has always been to grow, scale and be accessible to consumers around the world,” says Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle and Loop. “With the world’s largest retailers bringing Loop to physical brick-and-mortar locations, we are giving consumers what they’ve been asking for since Loop was introduced in 2019 — the ability to purchase the products they use every day in durable, reusable containers, with the convenience of shopping at their local market.”

Loop partners with brands and retailers to offer hundreds of household-name products in specifically designed, durable packaging options, enabling consumers to responsibly shop for a wide variety of commonly used products without the packaging waste. Loop’s movement to an in-store retail model began in Paris with Carrefour in December 2020. In May 2021, it launched in-store at AEON in Japan; it debuted at Tesco in the UK this month, will expand into Kroger stores in the US before the end of 2021, and will be in-store at Woolworths in Australia in 2022.

With Loop’s in-store shopping, customers will purchase their products in refillable, reusable containers found in Loop-specific aisles at retail partner locations. After they consume the products, they can drop off the empty packaging back at the store. Loop will then pick up the empty containers from the store to be cleaned, refilled and made available for purchase by a new shopper.

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Loop has also expanded beyond retail into food service — it recently launched a reusable cup partnership with McDonald’s in the UK and is slated to launch reusable cup and packaging options with Burger King and Tim Hortons in select restaurants in the US and Canada, respectively.

In another step forward for the growing reuse economy, TerraCycle and Loop collaborated with a multi-stakeholder consortium of leading consumer product companies, cities and civil society organizations under the leadership of the World Economic Forum's Consumers Beyond Waste initiative, to develop three practitioners’ guides, also launched this week. The City Playbook, Design Guidelines and Safety Guidelines for Reuse contain expert guidance and practical tools to help accelerate the adoption of reusable products and systems, with the goal of scaling circular business models, such as Loop.

"We are proud to release these three landmark community papers, which we hope will offer valuable guidance to practitioners and stakeholders seeking to advance reuse solutions worldwide,” said Zara Ingilizian, Head of WEF’s Shaping the Future of Consumption platform. “It has been inspiring to see the development of these works, thanks to the tremendous effort and cooperation among Forum's Consumers Beyond Waste vibrant multistakeholder community of leading consumer companies, policymakers and NGOs.”

To learn more about Loop, visit exploreloop.com.