New World Durham Street in Christchurch now has ecostore refill stations, offering a sustainable option for customers. Visitors can simply select the product they would like to refill and tap or pump the product into their bottle. They then apply a label on the bottle, write the product code and name, and proceed to the checkout to pay, in the same way people currently buy nuts from the bulk bins at the supermarket.
Customers will be able to choose from a selection of different options such as; Laundry Liquid, Dishwash Liquid, Shampoo and Conditioner, Body and Hand Wash.
Ecostore’s CEO, Pablo Kraus, believes the company is leading the way in minimising packaging waste via bulk formats and refill solutions. “We are thrilled to bring the first refill station for cleaning and personal care liquid to New Zealand supermarket customers and make the refill experience even better for our customers. We believe these refill stations will encourage more people to refill rather than buy a new single-use bottle.”
“People are used to bringing in their reusable supermarket bags; now they can also bring in their reusable ecostore refill bottles to conveniently refill their cleaning and personal care liquid at the supermarket. We are also focused on packaging that is 100 percent circular, keeping materials in use and out of nature, so we are in the process of evaluating a bottle collection system for our refill stations so we can reuse these bottles as post-consumer-recycled plastic.”
Ecostore will be providing supermarket customers with free starter 500 ml or one-litre bottles at the new refill station at New World Durham Street Christchurch, which they can use again and again. The refill bottles are recyclable (Number 2 HDPE), however, the bottles have been developed specifically to reuse and refill as many times as possible. The bottles are made at ecostore's manufacturing site, which has been zero net carbon since 2011.
