Asda trials new sustainability store
Asda has opened a trial sustainability store and unveiled its new plastics reduction strategy.
The supermarket has partnered with brands such as PG Tips, Vimto, Kellogg’s, Radox and Persil to create the store in the Middleton area of Leeds.
In a statement, Asda said the shop is designed to help shoppers reduce, reuse and recycle through a series of new initiatives that could save one million pieces of plastic per year.
Asda will use the store to test and learn which elements of the offer appeal most to customers before potentially rolling them out to more locations in 2021.
The supermarket has also launched a ‘Greener at Asda Price’ national price promise that loose and unwrapped products will not cost more than wrapped equivalents.
The Middleton store features 15 refill stations where customers can select from more than 30 household staples sold in refillable format. Products include Kellogg’s cereals, PG Tips tea bags, Quaker Oats, Lavazza and Taylors of Harrogate coffee beans, Vimto cordial and Asda’s own brand rice and pasta, as well as shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, hand wash and shower gel.
In addition, the store will offer 53 fresh produce lines that will be sold in loose and unwrapped format and Heinz and Asda Brand canned multipacks will have their outer packaging removed. It also features Asda’s first reverse vending machine as well as recycling facilities for items that are difficult to recycle in kerbside collections.
In 2018, the supermarket set a weight-based target of 15% reduction in plastic packaging by 2021. However, it has now introduced an additional commitment to remove three billion pieces of plastic from own-brand products by 2025 and has also pledged to introduce over 40 refillable products by 2023 and invest in 50 closed loop and circular projects by 2030.
Roger Burnley, Asda’s chief executive and president, said: “Today marks an important milestone in our journey as we tackle plastic pollution and help our customers to reduce, re-use and recycle. We have always known that we couldn’t go on this journey alone, so it is fantastic to work in tandem with more than twenty of our partners and suppliers, who have answered the call to test innovative sustainable solutions with us.
“During the next few months we will listen to customers and colleagues’ feedback on Middleton so we can understand how we can continue to reduce our environmental impacts, whilst continuing to deliver quality service at a great price.”
