#reduceplastic

Credit: Waitrose & Partners 

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By Idha Valeur

Waitrose has announced a trial project for one of its Oxford stores to feature a refill zone, frozen fruit and berries pick and mix option, as well as the opportunity to borrow containers – all in a bid to reduce plastic packaging.

The dedicated refill zone will include everyday essentials such as pasta, rice, lentils and cereals. It also offers an option to grind four types of coffee in-store and to re-fill jars. As well as a sustainable alternative for a caffeine fix, customers will be able to choose from four different wines and four different beers on tap to refill previous glass bottles to cut down on buying new ones.

‘This test has huge potential to shape how people might shop with us in the future so it will be fascinating to see which concepts our customers have an appetite for. We know we’re not perfect and have more to do, but we believe this is an innovative way to achieve something different,’ said Waitrose & Partners Head of CSR, Tor Harris.

In the same refill area, there will be an opportunity to mix and match frozen fruit and berries to meet different needs. The package-free berries will be mango, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherries and pineapple.

Credit: Waitrose & Partners 

A lot of plastic packaging is involved in containing household’s range of different liquid soaps, whether it is detergent or washing up liquid. In this project, Waitrose has partnered with Ecover to make sure shoppers can refill their reusable containers from the dispensers with detergent in the store.

As well as the refill zone, other measures to reduce packaging include removing packaging from fruit and veg. 160 sorts of fruit and vegetable products will be available to buy loose. When offering refill stations, customers will have to bring in their own boxes to put produce in. To make this even easier, Waitrose will offer a borrow-a-box scheme where customers can borrow boxes in the shop and bring them back when they next go grocery shopping.

The main goal of the test is to figure out how customers may be inclined to shop in the future. The normally packaged equivalents of the products in the refill zone will be located in their normal spots to keep the test effective.

When given the alternatives, which will the customers go for?

One of my favorite tiny humans just turned 1 year old! It’s unbelievable! How do kids grow so fast!?

Drink-ware & Dinnerware

Simply Straws are glass straws that are handmade in California. They are BPA free, dentist recommended and have a lifetime guarantee. You can also take their pledge against plastic straws here.

Package Free Shop has a multitude of products from school supplies to personal care products that are all zero waste. They have lunch kit items such as stainless steel food containers, on-the-go cutlery kits and various stainless steel straws including rose gold.  

Personal Care & Hygiene 

Albatross Shave Shop has safety razors and they even have a blade take back program. 

Sand Cloud now has bamboo toothbrushes and 10% of their profits goes towards organizations that dedicated to ocean conservation. 

Package Free Shop also has personal care items such as bamboo toothbrushes for adults and children and even feminine hygiene products that are all zero waste. 

Schmidt’s naturals has deodorants that come in glass jars and and Shea Moisture has face lotions that are packed the same way.  

Recycling (even things you didn’t think could be recycled)

If you’re wanting to recycle some personal care items, household items or even batteries that you know shouldn’t be just thrown away, I recommend signing up for a free recycling box at TerraCycle. TerreCycle is an organization that allows you to send in your waste and have it recycled in a responsible manner. I am currently apart of the “Burt’s Bees Recycle on Us” program and the “ Personal Care and Beauty Recycling Program.” With the second program you can send in shampoo and conditioner bottles, soap pumps, lip balm tubes and many other things. 

All you have to do is go to their website, go to the “recycle your waste” tab and then choose how you would like to send in your waste. For the free programs there is sometimes a wait list but that just gives you more time to accumulate enough recyclables to send in (you need a minimum of 10 lbs for some programs in order to get points to redeem rewards but if you do not care about points and just want to recycle your waste then send it in as soon as you’re off the wait list!). 

“Once found mostly in soda fountains of the 1930s, straws have become one of the most ubiquitous unnecessary products on the planet. No global usage figures exist, but Americans alone use 500 million straws daily, according to the National Park Service. Except for people with medical needs, straws are not needed to consume beverages or water.”