Loop's success in France

Discover how Loop has successfully implemented a reuse scheme in France in partnership with the market’s key retailers. We had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Szaky, TerraCycle’s CEO and founder, to talk through Loop’s success in France. We also took a tour of two Carrefour formats with Loop to see first-hand how the initiative works.

The French government is driving change through environmental regulations

The French government has implemented multiple environmental regulations and policies, setting objectives to ban single-use plastic packaging in France by 2040. To achieve this, France has set reduction, reuse, and recycling targets. It has also implemented a reuse packaging target law, which aims for 10% reusable packaging, in stores over 400 sq m, by 2027.

With sustainability being front of mind, it's key for retailers and suppliers to understand evolving market laws and regulations. It's important to note that other European governments implement similar regulations shortly after initiatives start elsewhere. For example, in France, since 2022, plastic packaging has been removed from fresh fruit and vegetables, unless they are packaged in batches of more than 1.5kg. Spain introduced a similar law in January 2023.

How Loop operates in France

Loop is a global platform for reuse. Collaborating with brands and manufacturers it enables reusable versions of their conventional single-use products, whilst it also partners with retailers to execute these reusable products in-store. For consumers, they may buy anywhere and return anywhere. The aim is to increase reuse and make it accessible and more convenient for shoppers.

1. The initiative works by a shopper choosing an available reusable product in participating stores. Shoppers can find a range of products from, from beverages to food to home care and personal care, from participating brands in reusable containers from Loop (with a deposit). Each product has a deposit attached to it. Deposit prices vary, from €0.10 to €1.00, depending on the product.

2. Once a shopper has finished the product in the reusable packaging, they can return it, without sorting nor cleaning, to a store with a collection point. At the collection point shoppers can select to have the deposit reimbursed to their card, have it donated, or returned as a voucher.

3. Empty packaging is transported from stores to local sorting facilities, then cleaning facilities and finally to the manufacturers where they are refilled. These are then redistributed back to participating stores, creating a circular economy.

Where does Loop operate in France?

Today Loop is available at Carrefour, Monoprix, and Cooperative U. Carrefour was the first retailer to partner with Loop and commit to reusable packaging.

Loop has a growing product portfolio, and retailers can choose to introduce their private labels too. A great example of how retailers have executed this is from Carrefour introducing its private label wine into the Loop product portfolio.

The below map shows the current locations of participating retailers.

Loop in action at Carrefour

Carrefour operates multiple formats in France. To understand how Loop works we visited different Carrefour banners, a 10,000 sq. m hypermarket and a Carrefour City in the heart of Paris, that showcase how the initiative is executed.

Carrefour Montesson, 280 Av. Gabriel Péri, 78360 Montesson, France

Carrefour City, Grenelle, 5359, Rue de Grenelle, 75007 Paris, France

In your opinion, what is next for Loop France?

Tom Szaky, TerraCycle and Loop CEO and Founder said: “Loop will be launching with four additional major retailers in France in 2025, finishing the year at close to 1,000 locations and over 500 SKUs ranging from packaged food, beverage, home care and personal care.   As we look ahead the goal in France is to increase the industrial scale of the system, with even more retailers and products. and then replicate to other markets in the EU as well as the UK.

We believe that reuse is better than disposable offerings, both economically and environmentally, across any category where the packaging used is relatively costly.  The key to scaling such a system, as we have in France, is to make it incredibly convenient for the consumer (but making all products available and allowing them to buy anywhere and return anywhere), as well as the retailers and brands (making reuse feel like a traditional single-use supply chain).”