The Refill Coalition says that refills provide an answer to the need to tackle single-use packaging waste. If every household in the UK refilled just one item per week, the group estimates, this would eliminate more 1.4 billion single-use packs in a year (based on 2022 government statistics showing 28.2 million households in the UK.)
“Plastics’ versatility has been critical to the success of this project,” said Edward Arnold, who has coordinated the project for Berry with its customer CHEP.
“We have been able to select a polymer that has the robustness for multiple reuse, while providing a lightweight solution for easy handling and to minimize the carbon impact of transportation. Equally important, plastic has the design flexibility to create two specific and totally different designs for both refill systems.”
Katrin Zeiler, CHEP’s senior director of zero waste world and customer innovation and solutions in Europe, says her firm’s business “is defined by our sustainable circular economy model of sharing and reuse. The pilot represents our commitment to redefining industry standards, reducing single-use packaging and fostering a regenerative supply chain to contribute to our sustainability goals.”
The Refill Coalition is currently running pilot programs at Aldi stores in both Solihull and Leamington Spa in central England.
Luke Emery, Aldi’s plastics and packaging director, said at the launch of the initial trial last fall: “We are pleased to have installed the first in-store refill solution as part of the Refill Coalition in our Solihull store. We are continuing our work to reduce single-use plastics and packaging, and making unpackaged product options more commonplace for our customers is a key part of this.”