UK retailer Morrisons is adding ‘rentable’ boxes to its salad bars in four stores as part of a trial project aimed at offering customers more sustainable choices.
The retailer has also removed plastic cutlery from all stores.
Rentable Salad Bar Boxes
Each ‘rentable’ box, made from fully recyclable polypropylene, will replace the large Morrisons salad box.
The boxes are designed to be used 400 times to prevent disposable plastic containers from being used.
To use the new boxes, customers must download the CauliBox app, register, tap on ‘scan to take a box’ and insert their card details.
They can then scan the QR code on the salad bar in the store, collect an empty box from staff members at the location, fill it with salad products, then pay at the till as normal.
Customers can return the boxes to a 'Refill a Box' drop-off point at the salad bar during their next visit and scan the QR code again.
Morrisons will wash and sanitise the boxes, before returning it to the pick-up point for reuse.
A £5 deposit is held while customers use the box. The amount is refunded when the box is returned within seven days.
Lorraine Wheeler, environmental packaging manager at Morrisons, said, “Thousands of customers visit our salad bars every week - and this is increasing as people go back out to work.
"Until now we’ve stocked recyclable single-use plastic containers, but we think customers will be ready to swap to this reusable box - as it’s so simple to use. We hope to roll it out to more stores this year.”
Reducing Plastic Use At Morrisons
The retailer has pledged a 50% reduction in plastic packaging across its own-brand products by 2025.
Since 2017, Morrisons has reduced its own-brand plastic packaging by over 8,000 tonnes a year and replaced another 7,000 tonnes with fully recyclable alternatives.
The move to refillable boxes is one of the latest initiatives from the group to remove plastic packaging from its stores.
Morrisons introduced a refillable container scheme for its customers at its butcher and fishmonger counters in 2018 and was the among the first supermarkets to introduce paper carrier bags at checkouts in 2019.
The chain is also the only UK supermarket to own its own recycling plant in Fife, which will reprocess hard-to-recycle soft plastic.
The retailer has also announced a partnership with recycling scheme Podback, offering customers an option to recycle coffee pods.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest Retail news. Article by Conor Farrelly. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
