The British supermarket chain Waitrose is using a store in Oxford to test some innovative concepts that could eventually help it get rid of thousands of tons of plastic packaging.
The store is testing the sale of bulk dried fruit, pasta, rice, cereals, seeds, wine, beer, and cleaning products, in this case in collaboration with the Belgian company Ecover. Customers can also take home freshly ground coffee in reusable containers.
Most of the fresh fruit and vegetables have been removed from their plastic packaging, as have the flowers and plants. “ We are helping the growing number of customers who want to shop in a more sustainable way ,” says Tor Harris, Waitrose’s director of sustainability. “ It will be fascinating to see which concepts customers accept most .”
Since the goal is to see if customers want to change their purchasing behavior, they always have the option of choosing packaged products. The test will run until August 18th and will be accompanied by a large-scale survey. The retailer assures that no supermarket chain has ever launched an initiative of this type with the magnitude of Waitrose Unpack.
