Marks & Spencer has launched a trial enabling shoppers to refill private label home care products, as part of its efforts to tackle plastic waste.
The products available as part of the scheme include cleaning sprays, laundry detergents, fabric conditioners and washing up liquids.
The retailer's 'Fill Your Own' concept commenced in September 2019. To date, the scheme has saved 350,000 units of single-use packaging, with more than 60 lines of refillable groceries (e.g., pasta, rice, cereal and nuts) now available, the retailer said.
'Live More Sustainably'
Commenting, Lucinda Langton, head of sustainability at M&S food said, “At M&S, we want to help our customers live more sustainably by transforming how we sell our products. We know they care deeply about reducing plastic so we’re taking a test and learn approach to find innovative solutions.
"Our home care trial builds on our refillable and packaging-free Fill Your Own concept, and both are important parts of our strategy to reduce plastic and packaging."
Store Rollout
The latest trial, delivered in partnership with Re, will be available to M&S’ stores in Stratford, Hedge End, Aintree and York Vangarde Retail Park over the summer. Prior to that, it will be available in M&S’ Stevenage store, as well as its Bluewater outlet.
Shoppers pay an initial £2 (€2.35) deposit for a reusable bottle, with a capacity of one litre, 750 millilitres or 500 millilitres. These can then be returned to store after the consumer finished with them, in return for a £2 (€2.35) voucher that can be used against a second purchase in the M&S refillable range.
All returned bottles, which are made with durable materials, are then cleaned and refilled before they are made available to purchase again.
"Fill Your Own has already been hugely popular, showing there is high demand for refillable great value options, and if customers love M&S Refillable just as much, we’ll be rolling it out to more stores," Langton added.
M&S aims to remove one billion units of plastic food packaging over the next five years.
Read More: Marks & Spencer Full-Year Results – What The Analysts Said
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Nikita Naz Siddique. For more Packaging & Design news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
