UK launches first online service for groceries in reusable packing
The UK’s first online shopping service that delivers food, drink and household essentials from leading brands in reusable packaging is to launch on Wednesday, aiming to kickstart moves to reduce single use plastic that stalled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Loop – already established in the US and France and due to be rolled out to Japan, Australia and Canada next year – is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to eliminate plastic waste from the household shop. It is backed by major consumer goods companies such as Unilever and PepsiCo, who have created eco-versions of popular brands – including Tropicana, Persil and Hellmann’s – to sell via the website.
Customers can place online orders for goods that normally come in single-use plastic packaging. They will be delivered instead in durable, refillable containers that can be collected from the doorstep and cleaned for reuse up to 100 times. Heinz’s tomato ketchup, for example, will be delivered in its patented glass octagonal bottles which were designed 130 years ago.
The new service, which is billed as the “milkman reimagined”, aims to change the way households shop and consume amid concern about the global single-use plastic binge.
At the start, 150 products from 35 major brands will be on offer, with more to be added. At first shoppers will only be able to buy from the Loop website but a partnership with Tesco – which will absorb the platform into its own business – aims to eventually put dedicated aisles in its stores.
The Loop scheme is run by the recycling company TerraCycle, which is initially testing it in a major national trial. Key to the scheme is online ordering, which has surged since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Prices will be comparable to the equivalent plastic container, but with returnable deposits for the refillable containers.
Progress in reducing single-use plastics in the UK has stalled since the outbreak of coronavirus, due to the increased use of masks, gloves, visors and disposable wipes amid fears of contamination and as recycling rates plummeted during lockdown.
