Green Fatigue Impacts Refill Revolution

28 February 2011

Britain's much anticipated refillable bottle revolution has reportedly succumbed to "green fatigue" as attempts to persuade supermarket customers to re-use containers are failing as the shoppers are losing interest in recycling initiatives.

Many retailers are expressing disappointment and cutting short their schemes because very few shoppers are warming up to the measures taken by the chains to encourage the use of refillable containers.

According to Julian Walker-Palin, Asda's head of corporate sustainability, the latest trial, aimed at helping customers save money while being environment friendly by reusing specially designed fabric conditioner pouches, did not meet the expectations with figures falling short of projections, despite being aimed at only five stores across the UK. WRAP, which collaborated with the supermarket on the initiative, in its recently published report called the self-dispensing machines a "disruptive technology" that demanded time on the part of consumers to get used to.

With Asda admitting that it has no immediate plans of reintroducing the pouches in its stores, and other supermarket chains like Sainsbury seeing very little viability in store-based refill systems, environmentalists' hopes of persuading other retailers to introduce similar schemes have come crashing down.

However, in spite of discouraging results, all is not lost. There are chains that still continue to nudge customers towards refill and re-use, like Ecover, which provides refill stations in around 600 UK health-food shops. However, according to Tom Domen, its marketing manager, the whole process of cleaning up after the customers refill and the lack of volume to invest in big refills makes it "unfeasible" in supermarkets.

According to research conducted by Vicky Lofthouse, lecturer in sustainable design at Loughborough University, the main contributing factors that hold back customers from participating are "inconvenience, mess and cost." But she adds, people were happy to use refills "if they liked the product." She sums up the current trend among retail customers by saying: "Refills are a valuable area, and we run the risk of dismissing them too early."

Krishna Buddhiraju