This week Coles Group is looking to trial a bring-your-own container scheme at its supermarket in Fitzroy, Melbourne, which will allow customers to fill up on shampoo, coffee, and soaps in a more environmentally sound way.
The announcement, which will see customers able to use their own containers for select ‘scoop and weigh’ products, came ahead of June 4th’s World Environment Day.
“To achieve our goal of being Australia’s most trusted retailer and creating long-term shareholder value, you can’t do that if you’re not going to be sustainable,” Coles’ chief sustainability, property and export officer Thinnus Keeve said.
“We’re under no illusions we’ll need to work together to achieve some of these targets, we cannot do it ourselves.”
And, according to Keeve, the trial is part of its larger push to reduce the number of plastics it uses company-wide – which saw the company sign on as a founding member of Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands Plastic Pact, and investigating the benefits of a local plastics recycling facility in Victoria.
The facility could recycle old soft plastics into oils that can be used to produce new soft plastics.
“We are committed to innovating when it comes to packaging so that where we can’t eliminate packaging and plastic, we are ensuring it’s contributing to the circular economy by being produced with recycled content where possible, as well as being recyclable,” Keeve said.