Life Out Of Plastic - L.O.O.P. - Peru

Founded and led by women, Life Out Of Plastic - L.O.O.P. is an established Peruvian brand and national platform for action on plastic pollution. The social enterprise aims to generate a movement for sustainable consumption across Latin America.

Fast facts

To date, over 24,000 people have taken part in L.O.O.P. organized activities;
The most direct beneficiaries are the five women who receive a salary from L.O.O.P.
Approximately 17,000 women have participated in a L.O.O.P. training session or campaign or volunteered for L.O.O.P organized activities;
To date, L.O.O.P. has up-cycled 1.3 million PET bottles through its products and removed 92 tonnes of marine debris from the Peruvian coastline.

The problem

The 5 Gyres Institute estimates that there are currently 5.23 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the world's oceans. Disposable plastic products are harming Peru’s fragile marine ecosystem.

The solution

L.O.O.P. is targeting plastic pollution by creating a market for products made from recycled plastic waste (upcycled PET). L.O.O.P.’s value chain is transforming over a million PET plastic bottles into rPET fabric, which can be made into tote bags and sold as merchandising to corporations. The rPET fiber products produce 76% less greenhouse gas emissions to produce than traditional polyester fiber textiles. L.O.O.P. targets the retail sector to motivate shoppers to replace single-use plastic bag with the L.O.O.P. reusable totes. Sales profits allow the company to organize awareness campaigns, which are mobilizing nearly 10,000 participants annually. These campaigns generate media-buzz and publicity for the rPET products and L.O.O.P. services.

Helping the planet

Based on the cradle-to-cradle concept, L.O.O.P. is utilizing waste material to make its products. Currently it mostly commercializes rPET fiber products, which are made from recycled PET plastic bottles. The cradle-to-cradle concept avoids extraction of virgin raw materials for manufacturing, hence avoiding emissions from fossil fuel combustion in the extraction of raw materials. Plastics are particularly harmful because they are a petroleum-based product. Overall, L.O.O.P. foments plastics recycling throughout all of its activities (products, services, and awareness campaigns). This indirectly diverts waste from landfills and mitigates greenhouse gas produced from waste decomposition, especially methane.

Helping people

This activity is conducting awareness campaigns that are mobilizing thousands of people in Peru. Blogs and social media updates are reaching over 20,000 direct followers. L.O.O.P. supports the leadership of women in addressing climate change because women are central to all of L.O.O.P.'s activities. L.O.O.P. is a 100% women led enterprise. Women leadership and capacity-building is promoted through three main lines of work: a women-only hiring gender bias, women-only campaign coordinators and striving to involve women-led organizations along its value-chain and as partners.

Scaling Up

L.O.O.P. is currently serving a small niche market in Lima, Peru. Currently L.O.O.P. brand products are only sold at the company office and specialized boutique stores in Lima. To scale up, L.O.O.P. plans to strengthen direct consumer sales by placing L.O.O.P. brand products in more and larger retail outlets. For its corporate merchandising products, L.O.O.P. is developing a “conscious gifts" catalogue compiling related upcycled and organic products produced by conscious entrepreneurs. This catalogue will be distributed to companies and institutions, aiming to offer alternatives to traditional merchandising in order to support a budding eco-system of local “eco- gifts”.