Do It Yourself All Over Again
Loose dry goods have long been available in supermarkets. Barrels with scoops and plastic bags or coffee grinders for beans to pour into paper bags were around way back "in the day" as the saying goes. Bringing your own containers and filling them with liquids may be a more 21st century activity designed to reduce packaging and the price we pay for it.
In an effort to reduce aforesaid packaging wastage, Wal-Mart's British chain, Asda, has devised a system whereby customers can "buy fabric conditioner from a vending machine, which pumps the liquid from a large vat in the stockroom directly into a pouch," according to The Daily Telegraph. As an added bonus, re-using the original plastic pouch reduces the price.
Wrap ("Material Change for a Better Environment") is a government-supported agency whose aims are to reduce waste, including the impact of packaging, and to help local authorities improve their collection and recycling schemes while benchmarking their costs and efficiency. The organization is contributing to Asda's trial and hopes that its success "could lead to additional liquid products, such as olive oil, shampoo, shower gel and possibly long-life fruit juice" being sold.
Wrap's retail director, Richard Swannell, explained, "Re-usable packaging offers us an opportunity to fundamentally rethink the retail experience. We have already seen positive responses from consumers in relation to carrier bag reuse. And if this trial enjoys similar success, it could mark the start of a reusable revolution."
Although a trial eight years ago was unsuccessful, possibly because there was no price differential, Asda's laundry buyer, Simon Spears, believes, "The potential for this is huge. All sorts of things could be rolled out if there is enough consumer appetite for it ... And the early indications are that consumers really enjoy it."
Discussion Questions: Are consumers ready for such re-usable packaging or has self-service gone too far? How viable a green solution is a refillable option?
[Author's commentary] This may not be news all over the U.S. but it has potential to spread. One New York-based colleague says he gets his dishwashing liquid from a fill-up station at a local green store. "Not so expensive either," he adds.