Aug. 22 Reuters - U.S. grocery chain Kroger and Australia's Woolworths are expanding in-store trials of selling food, drink, household, and beauty products in reusable packaging, joining a list of such global chains looking to reduce plastic waste.
After an online pilot test in 2019, Kroger will expand the trial with Loop, a lightweight packaging platform, to 25 Fred Meyer banner stores in Portland, Oregon, starting in the second half of 2021, Keith Dailey told Reuters.
Through a separate Loop aisle, shoppers will be able to pick up health beauty, grocery, cleaning items and cleaning products in glass containers and aluminum boxes. They can be returned in storage when completely used, cleaned, refilled, and refilled.
About 20 products are expected to be given first to customers, which would include Kroger's own-brand essentials such as Simple Truth soaps, but the majority of the goods will be from National Brands.
Companies such as Unilever, Procter Gamble Nestle, Coca-Cola and Clorox are some of Loop's initial partners, but it wasn't immediately clear which of these companies would be part of Kroger's global test.
Customers will be charged a minimum deposit fee that can then be recovered on return through Loop's mobile app, said Tom Szaky, founder of TerraCycle, the waste management platform that created Loop. Deposits would range from 15 cents for a Coca-Cola bottle to $10 for a Clorox wipes package.
Our plan was to always instore launch. It was likely delayed to be caused by the COVID -19 pandemic due largely to supply chain constraints. However, now we are happy to launch to view a future with zero-waste packaging, Kroger's Dailey said.
Similar trials will be rolled out to Woolworth's grocery stores in Australia next year, building on programs already adopted with Tesco in Japan and Carrefour in Japan this year and Aeon in Japan in 2020, Loop said.