A few months after their initial announcement, Loop have finally reached the UK. Loop has partnered with Tesco to deliver consumers favorite products in zero-waste containers not made for the bin – but instead, designed to be refilled and reused, again and again.
Items are delivered to your home in a Loop tote bag and once customers have empty packaging they put them back into the tote ready for collection.
“We’re not just growing online, but also building for the future – as we work to create the global ecosystem that will enable you to buy reusable products at your favourite retailers, restaurants, and more.”
I wonder whether consumers suffering from Coronavirus financial stress would be put off paying double the price of the exact same product in Tesco, just to receive it in a bag that will clutter up space until it’s collected, understandably the product prices could be higher due to fully sustainable product packaging that is also returned to Loop to be cleaned and used again, but it is perhaps not what people are prioritizing right now. In their March announcement, a Loop spokesman said they will require a fully refundable deposit and that prices are not expected to rise any higher than non-reusable packaged products but many do look much higher, for instance, a bottle of coke is currently £2.49 for 1ltr where consumers can get a 1.5ltr bottle of plastic coke for £1.59.
I do think zero-waste packing like this could be a success that revolutionizes sustainable living and Loop are definitely successfully solving a problem but it is, unfortunately, being replaced with another. For this particular company to succeed in a fiercely competitive environment they’d probably need to provide a wider range of products at a more comparative price.