As demand for sustainable packaging solutions reached its apex, the COVID-19 pandemic seemed to stall progress as disposable gloves and single-use shopping bags returned to even the most sustainable consumers’ homes.
Circular solutions have long been a priority at UPS. At the 2019 World Economic Forum, UPS joined with TerraCycle, a global waste management and recycling company, and some of the world’s leading consumer goods companies to introduce a revolutionary zero-waste platform.
Known as Loop™, this breakthrough system provides consumers with direct delivery of a variety of products that arrive not in a cardboard box — but in a customized, reusable durable tote.
Once used, product packaging is collected, cleaned and refilled for delivery. As a global re-use ecosystem, Loop provides customers the brands and products they love most — all with less environmental impact.
73% of consumers would be willing to change their consumption habits to reduce their environmental impact.
The right solution at the right time
Loop came at exactly the right time. Consumer sentiment has continued to trend away from single-use plastics and other disposable packages for many years now.
Nielsen data from 2019 shows that 73% of consumers would be willing to change their consumption habits to reduce their environmental impact. While these data points foreshadowed a push for a truly circular economy, the COVID-19 pandemic fueled bans on reusable cups and local efforts to reverse plastic bag bans in some states and cities, leading to a — hopefully temporary — increase in reliance upon single-use packaging materials.
As many consumers scale up their dependence on e-commerce, Loop announced expansion to every ZIP code in the continental U.S.
I recently joined 3BL’s Mary Mazzoni and Anthony Rossi, vice president of business development for Loop, to discuss the future of circular solutions and how we can avoid a backslide on plastic waste generation.
Watch the discussion here.
For more information about UPS’s commitment to advancing a more circular economy, click here.