Friday 2 August 2019

Waitrose continues war on plastic with packaging-free trial extension

Waitrose is extending a trial to remove packaging from various products following an “overwhelmingly positive” response at its first store.

The supermarket launched its initial ‘Unpacked’ trial at one of its Oxford stores in June, with a dedicated refill zone with dispensers for more than 200 products including pasta, fruits and vegetables, coffee, wine and beer, to save thousands of tonnes of "unnecessary plastic".

It is now extending the trial in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in September and Abingdon and Wallingford in Oxfordshire in November to reduce plastic waste.

Tor Harris, Head of CSR at Waitrose & Partners said: “The reaction to Waitrose Unpacked has been incredible with the invaluable feedback from thousands of customers giving us the confidence that they are prepared to change how they shop with us.

“We are keen to take the Unpacked concept forward and these additional tests will help us achieve this as well as understand its commercial viability. Through working with our customers and suppliers, we will continue to learn and develop ideas which have the potential to be rolled out more widely."