Marks and Spencer has now announced that it is extending its famous Refilled initiative, allowing you to help the environment while shopping.
Following successful testing in six sites, the supermarket will roll it out to 19 more stores throughout the UK, increasing the total to 25.
Customers may select from ten pre-filled, own-brand homecare items, such as cleaning sprays, laundry detergents, fabric conditioners, and dishwashing solutions.
A reusable metal spray or screw top bottle costs £2 and, as the name indicates, may be filled with anything you need.
When you’re finished, return your empty bottle for a £2 coupon that can be used towards a second purchase from the M&S Refilled collection. And the cycle continues.
The project is part of a collaboration between M&S and Reposit, which aims to minimise single-use packaging and waste while also supporting the retailer’s goal of being net zero by 2040.
So far, more than 10,000 M&S customers have used its Refilled stations, with the Citrus Washing Up Liquid being the most popular product, and this expansion is projected to save an estimated 150,000 pieces of plastic.
The store aims to eliminate a billion units of plastic packaging by 2027, having just met its objective of 75 million units in 2023/24.
In addition, it was the first national store to introduce coffee cups that are completely recyclable in the paper waste stream, as well as switching from plastic to paper bags in the food, apparel, and home departments.
M&S Refilled
Refilled stations are currently available in these Marks and Spencer stores:
- Aintree
- Bluewater
- London Colney
- London Stratford
- Stevenage
- Vangarde
The scheme will be launched in these stores in the coming months:
- Camberley
- Cheshunt
- Falkirk Central
- Hackney
- Hedge End
- Hempstead Valley
- Kingsley Village
- Leamington
- Liverpool One
- Meadowhall
- Mosely
- Oatlands Harrogate
- Purley Way
- Silverburn Glasgow
- Silverlink Newcastle
- Stockport
- Tolworth
- Wolstanton Stoke and York.
Lucinda Langton, Head of Sustainability at M&S Food commented: ‘At M&S, we want to support our customers live more sustainably. We know they care deeply about us reducing plastic packaging and are continuing to look for ways they can make small changes in their everyday lives.
‘Our Refilled scheme has proven hugely popular – showing there is high demand for refillable and great value options – so we’re delighted to be able to introduce this into even more of our stores across the UK this month.’
There’s still a long way to go, though, since the High Street staple now has over 1,400 outlets worldwide and over 5,000 product lines for sale.
The United Nations is concerned about the 14 million tonnes of plastic that wash into the ocean each year, including trash and microplastics that destroy the ecology.
Following a landmark treaty to tackle the global problem, Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet and the Plastic Health Council said: ‘Plastic broke our system of “reuse, refill, repair and share” to “use it once and bin it”.
‘This single use culture that has been so rapidly normalised has to be stopped – reusable packaging and natural alternatives are the future. One day we will question why it was ever acceptable to use the material and energy to make packaging that we trash after just one use.
‘I am heartened to see that the UN has recognised that to embrace a new age of reuse is to cut the head off the toxic single-use snake.’
