Japan's REUSE Revolution is BETTER with ...

Japan's REUSE Revolution is BETTER with LOOP

Aug 01, 2021

Had a wonderfully insightful talk with Eric Kawabata on the Seeking Sustainability Live Talkshow. Eric is the LOOP/TerraCycle Director for Japan and Asia. Watch | Listen | Read more about our talk.

At the end of August, some early adopters chosen by lottery in the Tokyo area will be able to start using this disruptive innovation in how we shop– that is NOT actually that disruptive or different from how we normally shop.

In fact, LOOP's reusable containers actually enhance the shopping experience by creating higher-quality containers that function better. Therefore, your products retain freshness and last longer than in the single-use plastic containers.

This reuse revolution is a gamechanger! As a consumer, we really only want to buy the internal product, but we are usually burdened with getting low-quality single-use containers that are not only inferior to protect the product inside, but also very hard to recycle or reuse. It surprised me to learn that is actually the customer who is paying for these inferior single-use plastic packaging as a part of the product sale.

The beauty of the LOOP shopping infrastructure is that it uses existing shopping infrastructures in Japan to help new consumers make the transition easier by collaborating with the brands you already use and like as well as retailers you are familiar with using every day.

Speaking of BEAUTY, I am glad to see that they have collaborations with Shiseido, Kao and other major beauty lines to offer their products in reusable containers.

I was pleased to hear from Eric that the companies they approach are already thinking of ways to improve their sustainable branding and reduce the amount of single-use plastic burden they are passing on to customers and into our already polluted environment. It's a way for the companies to also reduce their costs by investing in a better, reusable package as a part of their operations.

New users don't need to sign up for a membership or subscription service, only pay a little extra as a deposit for the container to ensure its return (and reuse). The LOOP system works in coordination with the AEON shopping mall chain across Japan where customers can buy products with a deposit and then get the deposit back once the container is returned at one of the drop boxes.

I was also pleased to hear that they are seeking out more sustainable products to add to their product line. Eric says its good business strategy as consumers who are seeking out a zero-waste or more sustainable lifestyle are a small, but more dedicated market that they want to cater to.

I hope we will see plant-based options, organic, fair-trade and healthy food options that have less societal and environmental impact added to the product line soon.

It's wonderful to have Japan included in this first stage of LOOP launch around the world by the TerraCycle company.

Eric and I also discussed some of their ideas for future expansion into reusable vending drink containers and to replace other single use containers which are now only used for a few minutes, but then create hundreds of years of burden as an unrecyclable and unreusable container which will likely never return to nature.

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