Refill Coalition: why didn’t it achieve its reuse vision?

The Refill Coalition seemed like a breakthrough in 2022, with its bold ambitions backed by a string of major supermarkets.

The ambitions are still prominent on its website: “A UK coalition developing, and testing, a standardised solution to deliver refills at scale for in-store and online.” But that hasn’t happened, and Innovate UK funding is ending this month.

Aldi, the only retailer that remained a member of the coalition long enough to actually trial the long-promised in-store solution, is ending its pilot.

So, why didn’t the coalition achieve its vision of testing a standardised solution across multiple retailers within the course of the funded project? And how does it leave progress towards refill and reuse?

“The Refill Coalition was a highly ambitious project,” says Paul Davidson, challenge director for UK Research & Innovation’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK.

However, “the timing was unfortunate, as the cost of living crisis meant retailers were understandably preoccupied”.

But he insists it “still managed to lay a strong foundation for continued development of reuse and refill, although more engagement with retailers and consumers would have certainly benefited” the coalition.

The coalition had seen Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl, M&S and Waitrose come and go as supporters by the time Aldi launched its in-store pilot in Solihull in October 2023. The discounter’s trial, which allowed shoppers to fill their own containers with dry goods including pasta and cereals, as well as household products, expanded to a second store in Leamington Spa early last year, but got no further.

Ocado still trialling refills

The end of Aldi’s pilot leaves Ocado’s online version of the concept, using standardised containers that are handed back to delivery drivers when empty, as the only consumer-facing remnant of the coalition’s work.

Ocado, a member of the coalition since 2022, finally launched its pilot in August last year. It is now continuing without Innovate UK funds, but only with the four current own-label SKUs, namely fabric conditioner, non-bio liquid detergent, basmati rice and penne pasta.

Adding more is “something we’re considering but no decisions have been made yet”, says Ocado Retail product director Simon Hinks.

The Refill Coalition – which was convened by refill consultants GoUnpackaged and also includes supply chain solutions company CHEP, says in a joint statement: “Due to a lack of wider retailer adoption, the in-store trial was unable to test its solution at further scale, while Ocado’s learnings continue.”

It insists that in both cases it “was able to prove feasibility across a range of commercial, operational, consumer and environmental metrics”, though no one is talking about cost, an area where Ocado declines to answer questions.

The coalition says early indications of an independent lifecycle analysis suggest “significant environmental benefits compared to single-use” – adding the caveat “once scaled”.

Ocado’s Hinks admits: “Most customers are currently only on their second or third cycle of the reuse pilot, but the vessels have been designed with circularity in mind and can sustain at least 60 cycles.”

The coalition also says engagement from customers has been “excellent” in both pilots, “evidenced with strong sales share versus the single-use packaged alternatives”.

It will be sharing “detailed trial data and results in April through an industry-focused white paper”, it adds.

Read more:

• ‘Relief’ for UK businesses as EU delays sustainability laws

• Former M&S packaging boss Karen Graley takes charge of EPR producer body

• Aldi ends packaging-free trial as funding for the Refill Coalition winds up

Jane Martin, CEO of plastic pollution campaign group City to Sea, believes there is still appetite for refill and reuse among businesses, despite the lack of retailer engagement with the Refill Coalition.

City to Sea is part of another coalition, led by reusable packaging platform Reposit. Like the Refill Coalition, it aims to achieve scale by standardising reusable vessels as much as possible across multiple retailers and brands, so shoppers can ‘buy anywhere, return anywhere’.

It is not progressing at quite the rate its early ambitions suggested, having declared itself a “game-changing” initiative in 2023 and set mid-2024 as the anticipated date of a multi-retailer and brand launch.

But it is progressing. Its returnable containers, prefilled with homecare products, are in 25 M&S stores, with another to be added soon in London. Reposit’s containers have also been used by Abel & Cole for skincare products in its ‘Club Zero’ reusable packaging range since September. And since January, Reposit has been leading a three-month returnable drinking cup pilot in Glasgow called Borrow Cup, with Costa Coffee, Caffè Nero and Burger King, among others.

Martin says: “We’re seeing Unilever buy [plastic-free and refillable deodorant brand] Wild for £230m, so that tells you something. Big brands want those consumers, they want that innovation.”

EPR needed to support reuse

But “we need the legislative environment, particularly in extended producer responsibility, to support reuse”, she adds.

With fees for packaging placed on the market to become payable by producers from October, there is a cost headache for those in early stages of a reuse pilot who are still establishing how many times the packaging actually gets reused, such as Ocado.

“You’ve got to pay for packaging [under EPR], the first time it comes on the market,” says Martin. For reuse, it means “in one year I’m going to get clobbered with a big tax bill [in EPR packaging fees] and with all of my carbon accounting on all of that packaging, even though I might use it for three years”.

PackUK, the EPR scheme administrator, “needs to talk to industry to ensure EPR incentivises reusable behaviours rather than being single-use policies, which is what it is currently”.

Defra is already talking to industry experts in the area on the Circular Economy Taskforce, established in November and chaired by former Ellen MacArthur Foundation CEO Andrew Morlet. Other taskforce members of note include Catherine Conway – founder and director of GoUnpackaged.

“So, all of that knowledge and learning will be going into the rollout of these policy frameworks, which is great news,” hopes Martin. “But it requires taking a breath, to make sure policies give us a retail environment that is fit for reuse and not just endlessly relying on recycling.”

Conway will not be drawn on her role on the taskforce, saying its work is confidential.

The coalition’s joint statement says it has “high hopes for future implementation of these systems through a new industry-wide focus on reuse via work being carried out by Wrap, InnovateUK, Defra’s new Circular Economy Taskforce as well as GoUnpackaged’s reuse infrastructure modelling research”.

Wrap is this year developing new industry targets in ‘Plastics Pact Mark II’, this time with refill and reuse as a “core pillar”. It follows a disappointing show for Mark I of the pact, which gave more focus to recyclability and compostability, and is set to miss half its core targets this year.

Lowelle Bryan, Wrap senior specialist in refill and reuse, says: “Wrap is working closely with GoUnpackaged, Ocado Retail and Aldi to ensure insights and learnings are fed into the Wrap successor agreement, where reuse will become more prominent.”

Funding for the Refill Coalition may be ending, but its impact is clearly not.