ASDA is expanding its trial of refill options to Scotland with customers in Glasgow set to have the option of buying packaging-free products.
Alongside the expansion to four new stores, the supermarket announced it has partnered with more household brands to encourage refill participation amongst as many customers as possible.
The refill offering at Glasgow’s Toryglen store will include cereals, rice, pasta, tea, coffee, toiletry and laundry products sold in specific aisles. Asda has brought on board Yorkshire Tea, Kellogg’s, Nestle, Tilda and Radox to the trial.
Susan Thomas, director of commercial sustainability at Asda, said, “We know that reducing packaging waste matters to our customers and they have embraced the refill options available at the Middleton store, with many of the products available already exceeding expectations. Our ultimate goal is to make refill and reuse a part of every Asda shopping trip and to achieve this we have to make it easy, accessible and affordable for all our customers to shop this way. Middleton was a great introduction to how customers engage with refill products and we are now looking to accelerate these learnings by trialling different refill options in more stores to understand which aspects can potentially developed further.”
Sebastian Munden, Unilever UK & Ireland’s executive vice president and general manager, said, “Asda share our ambition and urgency to tackle plastic pollution, so it’s great to scale up our partnership with them and continue to test different refill models in their stores. Including our first ever trial of reusable stainless steel bottles which are available pre-filled on shelf and then dropped off in-store once used. By testing and learning what works best in-store, we can understand how to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to make sustainable choices, whilst still using the brands they know and love.”
Jo Morley, head of campaigns at City to Sea, the organisation behind World Refill Day, added, “We know that the public are more concerned about plastic pollution than ever before, and looking for ways to live with less waste, so we welcome the news that Asda are going to be expanding their refill offering with the launch of four new refill stores. This World Refill Day, we’re encouraging people to make changes to their everyday shopping and find out what they can refill near them, and its brilliant to see Asda leading the way, making refill and reuse more accessible and more affordable.”
