The store is designed to help shoppers reduce, reuse and recycle with ease and Asda estimates the numerous initiatives being trialled in Middleton will save one million pieces of plastic per year.
Asda will use the Middleton store to test and learn which elements of its new offer appeal most to customers and can be developed at scale to be potentially rolled out to more locations in 2021.
And to encourage customers to shop sustainably, the supermarket has also launched ‘Greener at Asda Price’ a national price promise that loose and unwrapped products will not cost more than wrapped equivalents.
The new store includes the following features:
- 15 huge refill stations offering customers a selection of more than 30 household staples sold in refillable format.
- Products include a selection of different Kellogg’s cereals, PG Tips tea bags, Quaker Oats, Lavazza and Taylors of Harrogate coffee beans, Vimto cordial and Asda’s own brand rice and pasta.
- The refill zone includes popular brands of shampoo, conditioner, Persil laundry detergent, hand wash and shower gel from Unilever brands such as Simple and Radox sold in refillable format – a retail first.
- 53 fresh produce lines in total sold in loose and unwrapped format including 29 new lines such as cauliflowers, mushrooms, apples, cabbages and baby plum tomatoes. In addition, all Asda plants and flowers are sold either unwrapped or with a paper wrapping.
- Removal of the outer plastic wrapping on several popular Heinz and Asda Brand canned multipacks including beans and soups.
- Recycling facilities for items that are difficult to recycle in kerbside collections such as crisp and biscuit packets, plastic toys, cosmetic containers and toothpaste tubes.
- Asda’s first reverse vending machine for cans, plastic and glass drinks bottles and a hanger recycling facility that will be rolled out across all stores.
- The store will also showcase sustainable fashion lines through George including clothing made from recycled polyester and coat hanger-less denim.
- A new community zone for pop ups and partnerships with charities; the first is a three-month trial with the Salvation Army of a Drop and Shop outlet for customers to donate
- their unwanted clothing and bric-a-brac seven days a week.
- A partnership with Pre-Loved a vintage wholesaler who will be selling bespoke vintage clothing from well-known brands.
- In line with the opening of its new sustainable store, Asda has launched its new strategy for plastics and sustainability.
Asda recognises that sustainable shopping must be affordable and accessible to all customers and commits customers won’t pay more for greener options. The company is also committed to generating zero carbon emissions by 2040, reducing waste by 50% and having a net regenerative impact on nature no later than 2050.
In 2018, Asda set a weight-based target of 15% reduction in plastic packaging by 2021, with the company removing over 9,300 tonnes of plastic from their own brand products since then. Now it has introduced an additional commitment to remove 3bn pieces of plastic from own-brand products by 2025.
It has also committed to introduce over 40 refillable products by 2023 and invest in 50 closed loop and circular projects by 2030, working closely with waste management companies, recyclers and product developers.
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