Last year I tried out Loop, the zero-waste pilot project put together by consumer product conglomerates. It functions sort of like a cross between Amazon and the milkman, delivering food and personal care products in reusable containers that you send back when you’re done.
I received a large cooler filled with Lysol disinfectant wipes, Hidden Valley ranch dressing, and Tide laundry detergent, all in minimalist aluminum containers. Ignoring the fact that I never buy any of those products, I diligently used them all up, saving, cleaning, and storing the empty containers for three months.
I then placed the cooler downstairs in the lobby of my building for pickup. A couple hours later, the UPS guy buzzed to ask where it was. When I later found out a family in my building had taken it, thinking it was a giveaway, I was struck by how silly this whole corporate-led zero-waste initiative really was. It’s a rich-person solution to a problem that overwhelmingly has the greatest impact on low-income communities.