Ocado Retail has unveiled plans to begin trialling the use of refillable packaging for everyday products.
Some food and laundry products will be pre-filled into reusable containers to ultimately be collected by delivery drivers once they are empty, under the new scheme from the online grocery company owned by Ocado Group PLC (LSE:OCDO) and Marks and Spencer Group PLC (LSE:MKS).
Each container should replace the equivalent of five single-use plastic items, and in fact are designed to be reused 60 times.
“Our customers are already used to giving their bags back to our drivers for recycling,” product director Simon Hinks commented.
“This is a really sensible next step for us to help our customers reduce single-use plastic on products they buy frequently.”
Packs of basmati rice and penne pasta will be sold under Ocado’s new ‘Reuse’ brand in the trial’s first phase, which will start this month.
Laundry detergent and fabric conditioner will then also be included in the trial later this year.
The move comes as Asda announced a trial of refillable stations across four of its stores would be pulled on Thursday.
Dubbing the concept “too challenging,” Asda said “our research showed that the key barriers [...] included cost, convenience, cleanliness, and perceived product quality”.