There are 15 stations offering more than 30 household staples in a refillable format.
U.K. supermarket chain Asda has partnered with popular household brands including PG Tips, Vimto, Kellogg’s, Radox and Persil to create its first sustainability test store, with a promise to shoppers that they will not pay more for greener options.
The retail outlet opened this morning in Middleton, Leeds with a new plastics reduction strategy in place as well as a series of other initiatives designed to help shoppers cut back on their usage, to reuse items, and recycle. According to Asda, these initiatives together could save one million pieces of plastic per year.
What the retailer tests and learns at the Middleton store in the coming months will be used to fine-tune the sustainable store model for a potential wider rollout to more locations in 2021.
To keep thrifty consumers onside—particularly during the financially-constraining era of Covid-19—the supermarket has also launched a “Greener at Asda Price” campaign, which is a national price promise that loose and unwrapped products will not cost more than wrapped equivalents. The group serves more than 18 million shoppers every week at its 600+ stores.
While sustainability has been a general focus for corporates through 2019 and into 2020, data and analytics group GlobalData has suggested that the coronavirus pandemic could put a brake on progress.
In April the company stated: “Sustainability and single-use plastic will be less important to many consumers in the short term where hygiene and cleanliness is more of a priority. Prior to the outbreak, shopping habits were starting to shift with 74% of U.K. consumers surveyed in 2019 saying they would prefer to shop at a retailer that has more loose fruit and vegetables. However, the prioritization of health over the environment has led to a drastic increase in sales of anti-bacterial gel and hand-wash in plastic bottles, with little regard for plastic-free alternatives or refills that may be available.”
Affordability can be an enabler
Asda—which is in the process of being sold by Walmart
Today Asda’s CEO and president, Roger Burnley, commented: “Our own insight tells us that more than 80% (of customers) believe that supermarkets have a responsibility to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in stores. We want to give them the opportunity to live more sustainably, underpinned by a promise that they won’t pay more for greener options at Asda.
53 fresh products are now sold loose and unwrapped, including 29 new lines.
“We have always known that we couldn’t go on this journey alone, so it is fantastic to work in tandem with more than 20 of our partners and suppliers, who have answered the call to test innovative sustainable solutions with us.”
Those solutions at the Middleton store are wide-ranging and include:
- 15 huge stations where more than 30 household staples are sold in a refillable format. Products include different Kellogg’s cereals, PG Tips tea bags, Quaker Oats, Lavazza coffee and Taylors of Harrogate coffee beans, Vimto cordial and Asda’s own-brand rice and pasta.
- The refill zone includes popular brands of shampoo, conditioner, Persil laundry detergent, plus hand wash and shower gel from Unilever brands such as Simple and Radox—claimed to be a retail first.
- 53 fresh products now sold loose and unwrapped including 29 new lines such as cauliflowers, mushrooms, apples, cabbages and baby plum tomatoes. In addition, all plants and flowers are sold either unwrapped or paper-wrapped.
- A partnership with vintage wholesaler Pre-Loved selling bespoke vintage clothing from well-known brands.
- The group’s own-label clothing line, George, is showcase sustainable fashion including items made from recycled polyester.
- Outer plastic wrapping removed from several popular Heinz and Asda-branded multipack cans including beans and soups.
- Recycling of items that are difficult to recycle in kerbside collections such as packets for chips and biscuits, plastic toys, cosmetic containers and toothpaste tubes.
- A new community zone has been created for pop-ups and partnerships with charities; the first is a three-month trial with the Salvation Army where customers can donate unwanted clothing and bric-a-brac seven days a week.
Sustainable shopping goes mainstream
Commenting on the Asda move, Nina Schrank, lead plastics campaigner at Greenpeace U.K., said: “The new sustainability store reflects what people are looking for—the opportunity to go plastic free. Asda have bought what used to be a niche shopping experience into the mainstream, under one roof. We hope this store is the first of many. We need to see much more of this from across the supermarket sector.”
Asda's sustainable store in Middleton, Leeds.
Christina Dixon, senior ocean campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency, added: “This store shows real vision for a shopping experience that reduces plastic packaging and protects our planet. To beat plastic pollution, we need bold system change and innovative approaches to re-use and refill. We hope the lessons from this store can be scaled across the country and inspire a sector-wide shift away from unnecessary and single-use plastics.”
In 2018, Asda set a weight-based target of a 15% reduction in plastic packaging by 2021, and has removed over 9,300 tonnes of plastic from its own-brand products since then. It has made an additional commitment to cut three billion pieces of plastic from own-branded products by 2025. The company has also said it will introduce over 40 refillable products by 2023 and invest in 50 closed-loop and circular projects by 2030.
