UK supermarket retailer Waitrose has started a packaging-free trial at its store in Oxford.
Customers will be offered the choice between standard packaging and a packaging-free option across a series of products, including cereal, rice, and pasta, plus cleaning materials, wine and beer.
The customers will have to bring their own containers to carry the loose products. They will be, on average, 15% cheaper than packaged alternatives.
Waitrose is also trialling a range of pick-and-mix frozen fruit and a borrow-a-box scheme to help carry shopping home.
Some independent grocers have already tried the loose product model, but this is the first time a major supermarket has introduced the refillable packaging option.
Head of corporate and social responsibility at Waitrose, Tor Harris, said: “This test has [the] 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.”
The supermarket chain has signed up to the Plastics Pact, which challenges companies to eliminate unnecessary and extravagant uses of plastic packaging.
According to the BBC, Tesco and French supermarket chain Carrefour are also expected to trial refillable container options.