Like these milk cartons.
You know what I'm talking about,
food containers, soap, cleaning supplies.
It seems like everything comes in single-use plastic.
This system is wasteful, outdated,
and frankly, annoying.
Luckily for us, brands are starting to realize that
And there are a bunch of companies that are working
to solve this problem.
So, this trend got me thinking
To find out, I talk to a start up that's delivering
fresh food in reusable containers.
And, check out Loop, an initiative by dozens of brands
who are getting on the reusable train.
I'm Lucy Biggers and this is "One Small Step."
Reusables are nothing new.
It's the old milkman model.
A milkman would deliver full bottles to your door
and later, he'd pick them up, clean them,
and reuse them.
This system was a closed loop,
where the bottles were reused again and again.
The milkman model worked well for decades
and by 1963, nearly 30% of Americans
had milk delivered to their homes.
But as the shelf life of milk was extended
and it became cheaper to buy at the store,
the milkman model became a thing of the past.
It's unfortunate that our current convenient
but wasteful single-use packaging system
has taken control of almost the entire food industry.
But, what's old is new again.
Companies are seeing the value in reusable containers
as their customers come to realize
our out of control waste problem.
The first stop on my journey to bring back reusables
is a company called The Wally Shop.
They use reusable containers and a zero waste model
for delivering groceries to their customers.
The founder, Tamara Lim, started The Wally Shop
after seeing all the wasteful packaging
at her last job.
At my previous job, I was working at Amazon,
and I actually happened to be managing
their packaging and shipping retail category.
And I was speaking to brands and they were
telling me, "Hey, you know,
but here's the struggle.
The current recycling infrastructure doesn't support
products made out of recycled material
because it's just so, sort of shoddy
and there's a lot that goes into it.
The more I looked into it, I started to realize,
hey, there's an opportunity here
for a better way and
Wally Shop customers order products from their website,
then their team of shoppers go to local food co-ops
and farmer's markets to pick up the items.
They use reusable containers like mason jars
and cotton produce bags to carry the items they pick up.
customers pay a deposit on the packaging
and return it with their next order.
According to Wally Shop, since their launch
in the fall of 2018, they've saved
8,000 pieces of single-use packaging.
I'm curious to know what you think
about the future of reusables.
Is this something that could really scale
and become normal?
I certainly think so, I have this sort of
way of thinking that back in the day,
when the Amazons of the world popped up,
the environment just was not as big of a concern.
And so it wasn't factored in
when they built their companies and the infrastructures.
And what we're trying to do is
we're trying to build this infrastructure
from ground up.
The operational model we use is very similar to FedEx,
to FreshDirect, UPS, it's this hub and spoke model.
So they've obviously proven and shown
to be able to scale.
What we do is instead of, you know,
all FedEx and UPS trucks have to go back
to the warehouse, but the return trip is empty,
we're saying,
And so it's really just making everything more efficient.
It's not really an added cost and I think
with that note, it definitely can scale.
I fully support Wally Shop's reusable, zero waste model.
But honestly, they're still really small,
they're only servicing a really small part of New York.
If we really want to tackle this single-use issue,
we need industry-wide change.
That's why I'm excited to be at the launch of Loop.
Loop is an initiative by a bunch of big companies
who are prototyping reusable and refillable containers.
Why did Procter & Gamble decide to be part
of the Loop initiative?
So I think that it's really important that
Procter & Gamble also experiments in ideas in packaging.
But most importantly, the idea of having reusable packaging.
Now, the products that go inside of these packages
are the same products that you're going to find today
but just in packages that are designed
to be able to be, again, reused, refilled
once they're cleaned and sent back to the consumer.
It's a Tide Laundry Detergent reusable holder,
and think about those huge laundry detergent
plastic containers that everyone has a million of them.
Like, this is what you would get
and you would be reusing it again and again
after you ordered it.
And what's so interesting is like,
the bottle looks like a bottle that we already use
and so it's funny.
Like, we already have these in our lives
and now Loop will just be taking them back
and reusing them again and again,
versus when you send them to the recycling.
And if you're an ice cream fan,
we've got Haagen-Dazs, and what's so cool
about this container is that it's insulated,
so it would actually keep your ice cream cold
after it gets delivered, and maybe it's like
sitting on your front stoop or something like that.
My biggest takeaway from all of these products
is that reusable containers are prettier
than single-use.
Every single one of these is so beautifully designed
and it's so amazing to see the thought
and care that's gone into making them.
Loop is currently running a pilot program
in New York City and Paris,
with plans to expand to other cities soon.
You can sign up at loopstore.com.
So, do I think reusables are the future?
Considering the average American creates
4.4 pounds of waste per day, I think they have to be.
If you want to create a future with less waste,
we need to vote with our dollar
and support companies that are creating reusable packaging.
Remember, you don't have to buy anything new
to use reusables.
Take stock of the items you already have
and see what can be reused.
That's it for this week's episode
of "One Small Step," thank you so much for watching.