Asda has today opened a pilot ‘sustainability store’ that includes various plastic reduction measures, alongside a national pledge that customers will not pay more for greener options.
The supermarket said it had worked with brands including PG Tips, Vimto, Kellogg’s, Radox and Persil to create the store located in Middleton, Leeds, which is designed to make it easier for shoppers to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic.
Features include 15 refill stations offering customers a selection of 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.
The refill zones also include branded shampoo & conditioner, Persil laundry detergent, hand wash, and shower gel from Unilever brands such as Simple and Radox.
Meanwhile, 53 fresh produce lines are sold in a loose and unwrapped format, including cauliflowers, mushrooms, apples, cabbages and baby plum tomatoes. In addition, all Asda plants and flowers are sold either unwrapped or with a paper wrapping.
The outer plastic wrapping on several Heinz and Asda brand canned multipacks, including beans and soups, has also been removed.
To encourage customers to shop sustainably, the supermarket has launched its ‘Greener at Asda Price’ a national price promise that loose and unwrapped products will not cost more than wrapped equivalents.
The Middleton store also includes recycling facilities for items that are difficult to recycle in kerbside collections such as crisp and biscuit packets, plastic toys, cosmetic containers and toothpaste tubes. And it features Asda’s first reverse vending machine for cans, plastic and glass drinks bottles and a hanger recycling facility that will be rolled out across all its stores.
There are also various sustainability initiatives from its George clothing operation.
The measures being trialled in Middleton are expected to save one million pieces of plastic per year with Asda saying it will roll-out successful elements to more stores next year.
The company also today committed to generate zero carbon emissions by 2040, reduce waste by 50%, and have a net regenerative impact on nature no later than 2050.
In 2018, Asda set a weight-based target of 15% reduction in plastic packaging by 2021, with the company removing over 9,300 tonnes of plastic from their own brand products since then. Now it has introduced an additional commitment to remove 3bn pieces of plastic from own-brand products by 2025.
It has also committed to introduce over 40 refillable products by 2023 and invest in 50 closed loop and circular projects by 2030.
“Today marks an important milestone in our journey as we tackle plastic pollution and help our customers to reduce, reuse and recycle,” said Roger Burnley, Asda’s Chief Executive.
“We have always known that we couldn’t go on this journey alone, so it is fantastic to work in tandem with more than 20 of our partners and suppliers who have answered the call to test innovative sustainable solutions with us.”
Burnley highlighted that it was an issue that matters to customers with its research showing that more than 80% believe that supermarkets have a responsibility to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in stores. “We want to give them the opportunity to live more sustainably by offering them great product choices and value, underpinned by a promise that they won’t pay more for greener options at Asda,” he said.
