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Britain’s biggest refill store opens in York – to help customers shop sustainably

Fill and go at the new refill zone at Asda in Monks Cross, York. Photographs: Richard Walker / ImageNorth
@ Shopping

Britain’s biggest refill zone has opened – in a York supermarket.

Asda says it has ‘raised the bar for sustainable shopping’ after opening the largest refill store in the country at its Monk’s Cross branch.

It will stock more than 100 branded and own-brand products sold in loose and unpackaged format in a huge 18-bay refill zone.

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The refill area at the Monks Cross store

Customers visiting the store can use their own containers to buy unpackaged products such as pasta, rice, tea, coffee and cereals or alternatively buy a reusable container in store and use this instead. 

The refill zone in York is part of the supermarket’s strategy to remove 3 billion pieces of single use plastic from its business by 2025. The refill products available in store include:

  • 15 varieties of cereals including Kellogg’s Coco Pops, Cornflakes, Frosties, Crunchy Nut, as well as Asda own brand and Quaker Oats
  • original, Gold, Decaf and loose leaf Yorkshire Tea as well as Taylors of Harrogate Espresso, Lazy Sunday, Rich Italian, Hot Lava Java, Decaf coffee beans
  • 12 different types of pasta such as Asda own brand fusilli and penne as well as Napolina macaroni, rigatoni, green pea fusilli and red lentil penne and also Asda own brand and Tilda rice
In the zone
  • dry Mars pet food for cats and dogs including Dreamies, Whiskas, Pedigree Mixer and Chappie
  • baking and snacking lines including nuts, sugar and for the first time, Dr Oetker sprinkles and chocolate drops
  • Proctor & Gamble’s Aussie, Pantene, Head & Shoulders and Herbal Essences in a refill bay
  • three Unilever bays – one health and beauty which includes Radox shower gel, Alberto Balsam and Simple hand wash prefills, Persil laundry prefill as well as CIF eco refill at home
  • more refill at home products through Ocean Saver which includes wide variety of household cleaning for the kitchen and bathroom
  • Soda Stream feature bay with 10 flavours as well as a Brita water feature bay.
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Bottling it in Asda

The York refill store is the third opened by Asda. They are part of the supermarket’s test and learn approach as it looks at ways to make sustainable shopping as simple and accessible as possible.

Director of commercial sustainability at Asda Susan Thomas said: “Creating the largest refill zone in a UK supermarket is a real achievement and was made possible thanks to a huge cross-functional effort from Asda colleagues and our supplier partners.

“We hope the sheer variety offered across our range of 100 branded and own-label loose products, plus bringing together several simple ways for customers to reduce, reuse or recycle at home, means every one of our shoppers can find a reason to participate in our offer and help move us towards refill being part of every shopping trip.”