NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners announces the nine winners of the Beyond the Bag Challenge: ChicoBag, Domtar, Eon, Fill it Forward, GOATOTE, PlasticFri, Returnity, SmartC and Sway. The winning solutions fall into three categories: Reuse and Refill; Enabling Technology; and Innovative Materials. Their work ranges from reusable packaging systems, to technology that incentivizes consumers to make the sustainable choice, to bags derived from seaweed or agricultural waste. The winners now enter the next phase of the initiative: working closely with the Consortium to prototype, refine and test the viability of their designs to scale as long-term solutions.

It is estimated that we use 100 billion plastic bags per year in the U.S. alone and less than 10 percent are recycled; the convenience of single-use plastics has had far-reaching consequences for the planet. Single-use plastic bags continue to be one of the top 10 items found along beaches and waterways according to data from Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup. The global threats brought about by climate change and the pandemic have only underscored the urgency of addressing our current system.

The Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag is a pre-competitive collaboration committed to reimagining the retail bag and creating a more circular delivery system. Unveiled in July 2020, the Consortium’s Beyond the Bag Initiative is an ambitious three-year undertaking that aims to identify and scale innovative alternatives to the single-use plastic retail bag. Consortium Founding Partners CVS Health, Target and Walmart committed $15 million collectively to the bold collaboration, with the goal of driving transformational change. The Consortium has welcomed additional partners DICK’S Sporting Goods, Dollar General, The Kroger Co., The TJX Companies, Inc., Ahold Delhaize USA Brands, Albertsons Companies, Hy-Vee, Meijer, Wakefern Food Corp., and Walgreens, who have joined in its mission.

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution to tackle a problem as complex as our reliance on single-use plastic bags,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “The diversity of our winners underscores how businesses and consumers alike need to employ a range of solutions to fit different geographic, social and economic contexts. We’re thrilled to announce these companies entering the next phase of the initiative, as we continue to support their growth and begin to implement select pilot programs.”

The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners offers a holistic approach to tackling complex challenges to the circular economy, by operating across every point of the value chain. This enables the Center and its partners to better understand the diversity of needs across multiple sectors, enhance buy-in from key players and identify opportunities. The Center is a place where competitors and peers alike can join for a common purpose.

“It is exciting to see the potential of our efforts to reimagine the single-use bag in action as we unveil these innovative solutions,” says Eileen Howard Boone, Senior Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy, CVS Health. “We look forward to exploring opportunities to pilot these solutions at CVS Pharmacy locations.”

The Beyond the Bag Challenge is only the first step. The Center and its partners are committed to a measured, data-driven approach to test and scale viable, long-term solutions that bring value to the entire system.

“We know that tackling this challenge requires a holistic approach to best serve the needs of people, the business, and the planet,” says Amanda Nusz, Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, Target. “We’re excited by the nine winners – together they offer a compelling range of possibilities and inspiring potential solutions to this urgent and necessary work.”

“We’re proud to be part of a collaborative endeavor like the Beyond the Bag Initiative,” says Jane Ewing, Senior Vice President Sustainability, Walmart. “The Beyond the Bag Challenge winners inspire us to reimagine a more sustainable future, showcasing the breadth and tangibility of innovative solutions and we look forward to supporting them in their development.”

The Selection Process
The Beyond the Bag Challenge, in partnership with the global design firm IDEO, sought to identify long-term solutions that reimagine how to get goods home from an in-store purchase, from curbside pick-up, and in-home delivery. Over 450 innovators from around the world submitted their ideas on how to reinvent the retail bag. The Consortium then selected a shortlist of 58 concepts to explore deeper, and ultimately selected a cohort of 9 Winners.

Winners were chosen through a collective process by a panel of 10 subject matter experts alongside the Consortium’s Founding Partners, Sector Lead Partners, Environmental Advisory Partners and the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. A comprehensive set of criteria addressed three overarching areas:

• People: it must maintain the convenience, efficiency and effectiveness of the single-use plastic bag for customers and retail employees alike. It must take into account accessibility and inclusivity.
• Business: it must have attainable, long-term value for retailers in a variety of environments.
• Planet: it must operate within a circular system and lessen or eliminate environmental and social harm in its sourcing, production, useful life and end-of-life.

These principles are equally important when looking to scale and implement systems that change how we transport items from businesses to home. The Beyond the Bag Initiative thinks outside the box, seeking solutions that align the interests of people, the planet and business.

The Next Phase
Winners will receive a portion of $1 million in prize money and are eligible for additional financial support to support testing, piloting and scaling efforts. Depending upon the type of solution, they will either be invited to join the Circular Accelerator, a mentorship program to further hone and advance their solutions, or begin product testing to improve performance, customer experience and more. The Consortium will work closely with winning solutions throughout 2021, supporting design research, prototyping, mentoring and iterative developments toward piloting select solutions in-market.

About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners
The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners unites competitors to tackle complex material challenges and to implement systemic change that advances the circular economy. Adept at navigating every step in the value chain, Closed Loop Partners brings together designers, manufacturers, recovery systems operators, trade organizations, municipalities, policymakers and NGOs to create scalable innovations that target big system problems.

The Center’s first initiative, the NextGen Consortium, assembled leading food and beverage companies, including McDonald’s and Starbucks, to identify and commercialize a widely recyclable, compostable and/or reusable cup. 12 winning cup solutions were selected and the Consortium is supporting the testing of these new solutions as well as conducting select pilots to accelerate their path to scale. Learn more about the Center’s work here.

About the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag
The Beyond the Bag Initiative, launched by the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, aims to identify, pilot and implement viable design solutions and models that more sustainably serve the purpose of the current retail bag. Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy launched the initiative with Founding Partners CVS Health, Target and Walmart. The Kroger Co. joined as Grocery Sector Lead Partner, DICK’S Sporting Goods joined as Sports & Outdoors Sector Lead Partner, Dollar General as Value Sector Lead Partner and TJX as Apparel & Home Goods Sector Lead Partner. Ahold Delhaize USA Brands, Albertsons Companies, Hy-Vee, Meijer, Wakefern Food Corp., and Walgreens are Supporting Partners, and Conservation International and Ocean Conservancy serve as Environmental Advisory Partners. IDEO is the Consortium’s Innovation Partner. Learn more about the Consortium here.

Contact: [email protected]

Dec 8 — Today, the NextGen Consortium, led by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy, with Founding Partners Starbucks and McDonald’s, joined the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition as part of the Consortium’s multi-pronged approach to address single-use food packaging waste globally.

Building on the NextGen Consortium’s existing work to advance the design, commercialization and recovery of packaging alternatives — from new materials and recovery strategies to reusable packaging systems that keep materials in use for as long as possible — the Consortium will work with Coalition members to help increase recovery capacity for polypropylene in the United States. Polypropylene is typically found in everyday packaging such as the cup used for iced drinks on-the-go, yogurt cups and coffee pods, among other applications. However, in many markets, polypropylene is not accepted in residential recycling programs and ends up in landfills. According to The Recycling Partnership’s 2020 State of Curbside Recycling report, there may be as much as 1.6 billion pounds of polypropylene available per year from single-family homes that could be recycled into new products.

“Joining the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition was a natural continuation of the work we are doing across different packaging formats, systems and materials to improve the overall recovery of food packaging,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “Alongside packaging design innovation, such as growing tech-enabled reusable packaging models, capturing existing plastic packaging waste is critical for building a more sustainable future. Unrecovered polypropylene in landfills represents an untapped and wasted resource that could be recirculated in the economy, bringing value to numerous stakeholders.”

The Polypropylene Recycling Coalition, established by The Recycling Partnership,  unites the industry around improving polypropylene recovery in the U.S. and further developing markets for high-quality recycled polypropylene. Today, the Coalition announced nearly $2 million in grant dollars to upgrade and improve the sorting equipment at recycling facilities and support consumer education programs to advance polypropylene recycling. The Coalition’s investments will widen the total nationwide acceptance of polypropylene in curbside recycling programs to an additional four million people, resulting in the recovery of a larger supply of polypropylene that could be made into new products.

As the NextGen Consortium continues its work across the value chain – with brands, municipalities, material recovery facilities and manufacturers – to advance viable sustainable packaging solutions that can scale throughout the global supply chain and bring value to recovery systems, working with the Polypropylene Coalition will help further our collective impact at scale.

About NextGen Consortium

The NextGen Consortium is a multi-year, global consortium that addresses single-use food packaging waste globally by advancing the design, commercialization, and recovery of food packaging alternatives. The NextGen Consortium is managed by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. Starbucks and McDonald’s are the founding partners of the Consortium, The Coca-Cola Company, Yum! Brands, Nestlé, and Wendy’s are supporting partners. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is the advisory partner and IDEO is the innovation partner. Learn more at www.nextgenconsortium.com.

About The Recycling Partnership

The Recycling Partnership is a national nonprofit organization that leverages corporate partner funding to transform recycling for good in states, cities, and communities nationwide. As the leading organization in the country that engages the full recycling supply chain from the corporations that manufacture products and packaging to local governments charged with recycling to industry end markets, haulers, material recovery facilities, and converters, The Recycling Partnership positively impacts recycling at every step in the process. Since 2014, the nonprofit change agent diverted 230 million pounds of new recyclables from landfills, saved 465 million gallons of water, avoided more than 250,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases, and drove significant reductions in targeted contamination rates. Learn more at recyclingpartnership.org.

Read the full report

New York, Sept 24 – Today, Closed Loop Partners’ innovation center, the Center for the Circular Economy, announced the release of its timely report, The Circular Shift: Four Key Drivers of Circularity in North America. The report highlights critical trends driving circularity in the region, putting circular economy solutions at the center of business strategy, innovation development, policy changes, and new institutional partnerships.

The tumultuous events of 2020 have shed light on the importance of strong, stable, transparent systems, exposing the risks of overcomplicated, opaque supply chains and the limitations of continually extracting finite resources. In North America and around the world, supply chain disruptions, growing amounts of waste, and health and safety risks have called attention to the flaws of business-as-usual. As these challenges come to the fore, the urgency of rethinking systems that throw $10 billion worth of resources into U.S. landfills has increased. With growing investments and interest in less wasteful systems, the circular economy in North America is in the midst of a sea change.

Since 2014, Closed Loop Partners has been operating and investing in the circular economy, finding opportunities in the space and supporting its rapid growth across the U.S. Drawing from the firm’s investment intelligence and its Center’s research, the report delves into the Four Key Drivers of the Circular Economy in North America, exploring how innovation, investment, policy and partnership act as key enablers of the emerging economic model.

These factors shape and strengthen the landscape for circularity as investable opportunities have noticeably advanced, with momentum and innovation in the space growing rapidly. Capitalizing on the circular economy ultimately promises to recapture business value, offering a $4.5 trillion global opportunity by 2030, according to Accenture. Unexpected partnerships and visionary policy will be essential to accelerate the shift toward an economic model that is enduring, and able to withstand future shocks.

Against the backdrop of this year’s NYC Climate Week, the link between the circular economy––the reduction of both extraction of raw materials and of waste––and the consequences of climate change have never been stronger, or more apparent. The circular economy is not a singular solution, nor a short-term fix. To achieve circularity goals, such as decarbonization and dematerialization, change must be sweeping and collaboration must be far-reaching. Much like environmental solutions must include every stakeholder in the path forward, so must the circular economy.

“The clock is ticking on our current linear economic system and the circular economy offers a path forward: a robust framework that aligns the interests of shareholders, corporations, local communities and the environment,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. This report builds on the achievements to date and the necessary actions to move forward, underscoring the urgency of focused investment, innovation opportunities, policy change and unexpected collaborations to achieve system-wide change.

It’s a universal experience. You make a purchase…perhaps it’s a candy bar or aspirin at your local pharmacy, or your weekly groceries, or a new shirt…and you have to make a decision. How do you carry your purchase home? Do you take a single-use plastic bag, knowing that it could persist in the environment for hundreds of years? Is a paper bag the better choice? Did you remember your reusable tote bag?

This may seem like a small moment, but with 100 billion single-use plastic retail bags thrown away in the U.S. each year, you’re right to consider the outsize impact your decision can have. At the Center for the Circular Economy, we work with brands, retailers, recyclers, NGOs and others to elevate questions like these beyond a confusing individual choice and instead imagine the systems change needed for a future where waste is not an option.

Today marks the launch of the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, our collective call to reimagine how we get goods home. Too many plastic bags end up decorating trees, polluting oceans, or wasted in landfills, and it’s time we imagine something better. Given the scale of this challenge, cross-industry collaboration is critical. Closed Loop Partners and its Center for the Circular Economy launched the Consortium alongside Founding Partners CVS Health, Target and Walmart, and joined by Kroger and Walgreens, and environmental organizations Conservation International and Ocean Conservancy to bring competitors together to solve a shared challenge. And to increase the impact and scale of our work together the Consortium is inviting more retailers to join the effort.

Too many plastic bags end up decorating trees, polluting oceans, or wasted in landfills, and it’s time we imagine something better.

Solving a complex global waste issue requires collaboration among diverse stakeholders to achieve a shared vision. Collectively, organizations can send a unified signal to the market and world at large, demonstrating their commitment to change and incentivizing the value chain, from manufacturers to recyclers, to adopt more sustainable practices that secure a waste-free future for the products and packaging we all use every day.

It’s not the first time Closed Loop Partners has convened unexpected and unprecedented partnerships to solve a shared challenge. In 2018 we launched the NextGen Consortium with the goal of redesigning the hot and cold fiber to-go cup with leading competitors Starbucks and McDonald’s. A year and a half later, following 480 innovative cup designs and the selection of 12 winners, four sustainable cup solutions were piloted in local cafes in the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year. The findings from those pilots alongside extensive material and performance testing inform our next steps for the implementation of reusable, recyclable, and compostable cup solutions, and the infrastructure investments needed to support them. Our next journey brings together the world’s largest retailers who have a shared vision of reinventing the retail bag, with customer convenience, accessibility, inclusiveness, innovative design, and positive environmental outcomes all key priorities.

The Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag’s Beyond the Bag Initiative will take a holistic approach to implementing new systems that serve the function of today’s single-use plastic retail bag. Our goal is to identify, test and scale new solutions, while bolstering the recovery infrastructure necessary to retain the value of their materials. Reimagining the retail bag is only one step; the entire lifecycle of any new product must be considered. That’s why the Consortium will work to improve infrastructure for the reuse or recovery of alternative designs and require that new solutions bring material value to our recovery systems.

The old question at check-out of “paper or plastic” has been replaced by some additional options, but whether a bag is made out of paper or plastic or cotton all of these materials bring some tradeoffs. The traditional single-use plastic retail bag, with an average use time of 12 minutes, is derived from unsustainable fossil fuels. While these bags can technically be recycled, few actually make it to a recycling facility. And, if they do, they typically aren’t a high enough value product to make the economics of the recycling system work. Alternatively, paper bags, sometimes viewed as the more sustainable solution, are made from a more readily renewable resource but can drive deforestation and some studies have found they are more energy-intensive to manufacture. Other materials, whether bioplastics, fabric totes or something else all come with their own set of baggage and carbon footprint. The fact is: there is no convenient, sustainable, widespread solution available to all today.

Learn more about the complexities of the current bag landscape in our report, A New Way Home.

Read report

To identify new, innovative and inclusive solutions to the retail bag, the Consortium is launching, in partnership with OpenIDEO, the Beyond the Bag Challenge, inviting innovators, suppliers, designers and problem-solvers from around the world to share their ideas for sustainable solutions. Do you have an idea that can scale? Submit your idea here after applications open on August 3rd. Materials derived from novel sources, innovative reuse solutions, and solutions that eliminate the need for a bag altogether are all welcome.

We are excited to embark on this three-year partnership with leading retailers to find a new way to get goods home. Today is always the best day to begin to reimagine a better future; the Beyond the Bag Initiative is looking for innovative solutions that align the interests of people, the planet and business. We invite you to join us on our journey.

July 21, New York – The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners and leading retailers CVS Health, Target and Walmart aim to reinvent the single-use plastic retail bag, with the goal of identifying, testing and implementing viable design solutions and models that more sustainably serve the purpose of the current retail bag. 

Current alternatives to the plastic retail bag have yet to garner industry-wide support or widespread use by the public and many still have significant environmental impacts. To accelerate innovation for much-needed solutions, Closed Loop Partners – with Founding Partners CVS Health, Target and Walmart, and joined by Kroger and Walgreens – is forming the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag. Collectively, Consortium Partners have committed more than $15 million to launch the Beyond the Bag Initiative. 

Today, global risks from climate change, the global pandemic and mounting plastic waste have revealed the vulnerabilities of our current system. The Beyond the Bag Initiative convenes some of the largest and most influential retailers in the United States to think outside the box and drive long-term, transformational thinking to address a complex global waste challenge. This historic three-year Consortium welcomes additional retailers to join in to help create a less wasteful future.

“The status quo has been shaken, presenting a unique opportunity to build back better and reimagine a more resilient and sustainable way of doing business,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “During challenging times, unexpected and unprecedented collaboration is required and we’re excited to work with leading retailers like CVS Health, Target, Walmart and others – along with the entire industry – to take effective action.”

Studies show that over 100 billion single-use plastic retail bags are used in the U.S. every year, and less than 10 percent of these are recycled*. Every year, plastic retail bags are among the top 10 items found on beaches and waterways worldwide**. That’s why this initiative aims to take a holistic view of the challenge and solutions, aligning consumer convenience and product innovation with the equally important infrastructure for recovery or reuse of any alternatives developed. 

Innovative design solutions to serve the function of today’s retail bag will be solicited from around the world through the Consortium’s global Innovation Challenge, with an initial focus on implementation in the United States. Launched in partnership with global design firm IDEO, the Challenge invites innovators, suppliers, designers and problem-solvers to submit their ideas for game-changing sustainable bag solutions. Closed Loop Partners will launch a Circular Accelerator, develop potential piloting opportunities and aim to make infrastructure investments in support of the development of market-ready solutions.

“We know how important it is to bring our customers along on our sustainability journey, keeping in mind that most are looking for convenience with minimal environmental impact,” says Eileen Howard Boone, SVP, Corporate Social Responsibility & Philanthropy and Chief Sustainability Officer, CVS Health. “This collaboration with Target, Walmart and other like-minded retailers and innovators allows for collective reach that can be truly impactful.”   

“We believe in serving our guests and communities with actions that reduce our footprint on the planet,” says Amanda Nusz, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, Target. “We’re proud to partner with Closed Loop Partners and other leading retailers to take on a challenge facing the entire industry. We welcome others to join us in this collective effort as we aim to design a better solution.”

“By coming together to tackle the problem, we aim to accelerate the pace of innovation and the commercialization of sustainable solutions,” says Kathleen McLaughlin, Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer for Walmart. “Through efforts like the Innovation Challenge and the Circular Accelerator, we hope the Beyond the Bag Initiative will surface affordable, practical solutions that meet the needs of customers and reduce plastic waste.”

Call to action: Join the effort. Founding Partners of the Consortium – CVS Health, Target and Walmart – are calling on other retail leaders, from general merchandise to grocery, apparel, pharmacy, home goods and beyond, to get involved. The Kroger Co. joins the initiative as the Grocery Sector Lead Partner. “Our commitment to phase out single-use plastic bags across our enterprise and support innovative solutions on our path to Zero Hunger | Zero Waste aligns perfectly with Closed Loop Partners’ goal to reinvent the retail shopping bag,” says Keith Dailey, Kroger’s Group Vice President of Corporate Affairs. “We encourage other retailers to join us in this commitment and bid farewell to the single-use plastic bag for good.” Walgreens joins the initiative as a Supporting Partner, with Alain Turenne, Walgreens Corporate Social Responsibility vice president noting, “This consortium reflects Walgreens enduring commitment to advancing innovative ideas to address critical sustainability issues and our mission to champion the health and wellbeing of every community in America.”

Conservation International and Ocean Conservancy join as Environmental Advisory Partners to provide critical perspective on environmental impacts and solutions throughout the initiative.  “Putting an end to the plastic retail bag would be a game changer for the health of our planet, and it is essential that any alternative can be easily adopted by a wide range of retailers,” says Bambi Semroc, Vice President of Sustainable Markets and Strategy, Conservation International. “Conservation International will put our experience in working collaboratively across industry sectors to help identify truly sustainable options that are better for the planet, people and retailers.” Janis Searles Jones, CEO of Ocean Conservancy, says, “Ocean Conservancy has long believed that we need to engage with partners across all sectors to tackle the global ocean plastics crisis; the stakes are simply too high to go at it alone. The plastic retail bag is among the most insidious types of waste we see in our ocean, and we are thrilled to share our decades of expertise on this issue with leaders and innovators to help change the paradigm.” 

IDEO joins the Consortium as an Innovation Partner, with Chris Krohn, Portfolio Lead at the company, noting, “Redesigning the single-use plastic retail bag so that alternatives consider the social, environmental and material impact at every stage of the value chain is critical. The collaborative nature of the Beyond the Bag Initiative enables us to collectively accelerate the transition to a more circular and regenerative future.”

* Waste Management Journal & EPA ** Ocean Conservancy 

About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners

The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners convenes competitors to solve material challenges and advance the circular economy. Its first initiative, the NextGen Consortium, united leading food and beverage companies to identify and commercialize a widely recyclable, compostable and/or reusable cup. Twelve winning cup solutions were selected and the Consortium is supporting the testing and piloting of these new solutions to accelerate their path to scale. Now, in partnership with leading retailers in the United States, the focus is on the single-use plastic retail bag, a challenge and opportunity that is top-of-mind for communities and consumers concerned about the impact of single-use plastics on our environment. Learn more about the Center’s work here.

Consortium Partners