Tesco debuts in-store reusable packaging scheme

In collaboration with global reusable packaging platform Loop, Tesco has launched a wide range of food, drink, household and beauty products that is now available in reusable and durable packaging.

In partnership with Loop, customers in ten large Tesco stores in the east of England will be able to buy products in reusable packaging that, once emptied, can be returned to the store. The packaging will then be cleaned, refilled and used again.

The new reusable range of 88 products will include some of the UK’s biggest and most popular brands, including Persil, Fever-Tree, Carex, Tetley Tea and BrewDog. Tesco has included 35 own brand essentials in the range, such as pasta, rice, oil and sugar, with even more products set to be added to the range throughout the year.

The Loop range comes ready prefilled in a reusable container for that product, so customers do not have to bring their own containers or refill themselves. Tesco has partnered with food safety firm Ecolab, which is tasked with professionally cleaning the used packaging.

At the online launch event this morning, Ken Murphy, Tesco Group CEO, said in a video: “We are determined to tackle plastic waste and one of the ways we can help is by improving reuse options available to customers. Bringing Loop to our stores is a significant milestone in this journey. With 88 everyday products available, we’re giving customers a wide range of options and we’ll learn as much as we can from this to inform our future packaging plans.”

The launch was followed by a panel discussion, during which the impact and challenges of the initiative were looked at.

Panel member Kate Norgrove, executive director Advocacy and Campaigns at WWF, said she saw a big role for reuse. “This can go mainstream when more retailers are involved,” she said. “But consumers also have a role to play…and Government and businesses have to make it easier for consumers to play that role.”

Giles Bolton, Responsible Sourcing Director at Tesco, agreed. “Tesco is trying to make it as easy as possible for the customer,” he said. He made the point that disposable is ‘incredibly easy’ - the challenge is now to make reuse a ‘compelling option’. “What’s also important is that the reusable packaging must also be recyclable at the end of life. Customers should be aware it is not simply going to end up as a piece of refuse.”

Prices for the contents of each item are comparable to the original. A fully refundable deposit starting at £0.20 is paid on each reusable product at checkout and this is refunded via an app when the customer returns the packaging to a collection point in the store.

Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of Loop and TerraCycle, the organisation behind the Loop scheme, who also joined the panel discussion online from the US, noted that ‘reuse is just the beginning.’

“The more products and the more retailers who participate, the more competitive the products will become on price.”

The impact of switching just three items of the weekly shop could be enormous: if customers in the 10 stores switched their recyclable tomato ketchup, cola and washing up liquid bottles to the reusable Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Coca-Cola and Ecover alternatives, the packaging would be used and reused more than two and a half million times a year.

To help customers include Loop products in their shop, Loop Ambassadors will be on hand to explain what Loop is and how it works.

Responding to questions about returnables and cleanliness, Szaky said that safety and cleanliness were of paramount importance. He observed that the online pilot of the scheme kicked off at the start of the pandemic, but that customers had responded well. “Our partners, Tesco, Ecolab, food producers like Meridian, have set new standards in this area, and consumers have resonated.”

Giles Bolton added that there has been no compromise here. “Our first priority has been on making sure the stores are safe.” But compared to customers bringing in their own containers, as was the case during the year-long online pilot that launched in July 2020, this is the absolute industrial top standard in cleanliness.

Reuse ‘changes the dynamics of packaging’, the panel agreed. And what’s exciting, said Szaky, is seeing how brands embrace the benefits of reusable packaging. “It moves packaging from a  cost to an asset,” he stressed. It comes back and can be reused again and again - and in the future, this may lead to packaging that is more functional, instead of disposable. Reuse means preserving those molecules instead of simply throwing things away.

The launch of Loop in Tesco stores will see the sunset of the online pilot programme. However, this will be replaced in the future by new online and more in-store initiatives.

The full list of brands available in store at launch are: Alberto Balsam, Bisto, BrewDog, Bulldog Skincare, Carex, Coca-Cola, Dr Will’s, Ecover, Fever-Tree, Finish, Good4U, Hardys, Mackays, Heinz, Meridian, Mud House, Naked Noodle, Original Source, Persil, Quaker Oats, Radox, Simple, Sipsmith and Tetley.