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Sophie Benson
While we tend to imagine they'll come in a futuristic format, it's often the case that we already had the perfect system and replaced it. Take prefill — it’s not a term everyone is familiar with, but most of us are familiar with the concept thanks to the traditional milk round: prefilled Glass bottles are delivered to your door, you use the contents, and then leave the bottles out for cleaning and reuse. It’s a simple and efficient system that served us well for over a century, and could solve many of the problems created by modern packaging.
The original prefill model, the milk round, is making a comeback. Demand for delivery steadily increased in the mid to late 2010s (rising from 800,000 to 1 million between 2016 and 2018 in the UK) then skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Milk and More, owned by Müller, gained 175,000 online customers between 2020 and 2021, experiencing a 20% growth in sales.
But milk deliveries alone won’t solve the plastic crisis, which is why the system is expanding to different product categories and into stores. Unlike refill, which can be messy and requires extra time in-store, prefill is designed to mimic the everyday shopping experience as closely as possible: a customer goes to the shop or shops online, selects the product they always use, and takes it home. The only difference is it's packaged in a material which can be sterilised and reused, such as Glass, Aluminium, or Steel. Once the customer has finished with their product, they return the packaging at a drop-off point and grab a new one which is prefilled and ready to go. It's a small change with a potentially huge impact. Zero Waste Europe found that a reusable glass bottle has an emissions rate 85% lower than single-use glass, 57% lower than single-use aluminium, and 70% lower than single-use PET.
The concept of prefill is simple, the logistics are not. “We do the packaging, we do the product as a service, we do the technology from a tracing perspective, and we do the behaviour change,” says Jo-Anne Chidley, co-founder of Beauty Kitchen and Re, a new refill packaging platform for fast-moving consumer goods which describes itself as a “buy anywhere, return anywhere, reuse anywhere alternative to single-use packaging”. Re’s whole system approach encompasses everything from the packaging to the technology for deposits, credits, tracking, and container returns reminders, as well as the infrastructure for drop-off points, washing, and sterilisation.
While Re is taking its service to retailers and distributors, it was distributors themselves who set up the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperation (OBRC) in 2009 to operate a beverage container redemption programme in line with Oregon’s 1971 Bottle Bill. Initially the programme focused on managing deposits and refunds and collecting beverage containers for domestic recycling, but in 2018 the OBRC launched the first state-wide refillable bottle system in the US, developing a strong glass bottle which can be refilled up to 40 times. OBRC separates, washes, and inspects the bottles before delivering them back to beverage producers. Currently 2,531,489 refillable bottles are in rotation, used by 10 producers who collectively make 124 varieties of beer, cider, kombucha, and wine.
Meanwhile, UK supermarket Tesco worked with Terracycle’s prefill programme Loop for an online pilot between June 2020 and June 2021, and an in-store pilot between September 2021 and June 2022. Customers could choose from branded and Loop own-brand products including sauces, yoghurts, soaps, cereals, moisturisers, chocolate, and washing detergents, and packaging could be returned via courier or to an in-store collection point. Loop handled the collection, transportation, and cleaning of the packaging, while the product manufacturers were responsible for replenishment.
Unlike the drop-off and pick-up simplicity of milk rounds, each contemporary prefill programme has its own particular system. Most are still very much in the pilot stage, so a single standard has yet to emerge. OBRC had the benefit of using its existing BottleDrop points for the return of its reusable bottles. Users must have a BottleDrop account and will receive a refund once they have returned their bottles — either as cash or store credit which offers a 20% increase on the refund value. The Bottle Bill set the deposit at 10 cents, keeping consumer costs low, and the bottle itself was specially designed to be easily separated from others in the deposit system to ensure it is refilled rather than recycled.
Tesco used an app and QR code system for its Loop trial. Using the Loop Deposit App, customers scanned a QR code before dropping their containers off at the Loop Return Point. The app also served as the ‘bank’ for deposits, which could be withdrawn at any time.
While OBRC and Loop effectively act as prefill deposit return schemes, Re aims to keep the deposits – and the customers – in the system. Imagine a customer goes to Costa for a morning coffee and gets a reusable cup. They drop the cup in a collection point and the deposit credit is immediately applied to the packaged morning snack purchased from a shop further along in their commute. That container goes into another collection point and the deposit is then carried over to the hand sanitiser they pick up in the pharmacy before work, and so it continues. Chidley explains that Re isn’t designed to make people need to constantly cash out their deposits, rather it aims to make a seamless system which keeps everything and everyone in one efficient loop.
Choice isn’t always welcome. 70% of streaming customers think there are too many streaming options, so when it comes to a system that requires more effort than simply sitting and watching, too much choice could be a death knell. For instance, coffee lovers may have to navigate Costa’s BURT system, Starbuck’s reusable cups, East London’s Reuser initiative, and Ireland’s 2GoCup. That’s a lot of cups and deposits on the go. For that reason, Chidley considers Re’s one-stop model to be the gold star for consumer uptake. “Brands and retailers can't be competitive. They can't do their own reusable packaging because it doesn't work for the consumer. They wonder, 'where does this bottle go, where does that container go, who do I return this to?' It has to be a uniform system that works,” she says.
Alongside M&S, Re lists brands and retailers including Unilever, ASDA, Elemis, Co-op, Ecover, and Lush among its collaborators. Just as OBRC’s initiative is statewide, a single nationwide system would limit confusion and maximise efficiency.
Tesco’s pilot included brands such as Persil, Coca Cola, Heinz, and Tetley Tea, further demonstrating a willingness to collaborate under a single system. It may be that the competition is between the service providers rather than the brands.
In the follow-up report to its pilot, Tesco lists prefill as being easier, tidier, more hygienic, and more attractive to consumers than a refill system. “We believe all these reasons mean it has greater potential to scale than in-store refill,” it says. More than 80,000 products were purchased over two years, both online and in-store. If rolled out to 400 stores, Tesco says prefill could be a “viable business opportunity that replaces millions of pieces of recyclable plastic with reusable alternatives”.
The report also highlighted key areas for improvement. These included removing the need for a standalone app, speeding up deposit payments, increasing flexibility for packaging returns, and ensuring packaging shapes are optimised for transport and to fit conveniently in the average household. These points are underlined and expanded upon in a broader reuse report by Hubbub. It found that 41% of people would reuse if there was no extra cost, 38% would like to earn rewards or discounts for taking part, and 32% of people would prefer not having to go out of their way to do it.
Re seeks to tackle the latter point by implementing RFID technology, meaning a piece of packaging could, for instance, be bought on a trip to Glasgow and returned at a corner shop in Birmingham. Thanks to what Chidley calls strong “demand signals” from Re’s founding partners, Re is forecasting 5,000 return points in the UK by the end of 2023 and 50,000 by the end of 2024. However, she notes an RFID-based system may come with privacy concerns, as it would technically track someone from return point to return point.
Re also aims to address concerns about price, keeping costs down by promising retailers that leasing packaging will cost a maximum of 20% more than buying it. Tesco price matched pro-rata with original products and offered discount coupons. But the need for deposits to keep systems running is unlikely to disappear, and they vary greatly. Costa’s BURT deposit was GBP 5, likely higher than the price of the drink being purchased, while Tesco’s deposits started at just GBP 0.20. The benefit of deposits, however, is they increase the likelihood of return. A report from Rochester Institute of Technology found that glass bottle recycling rates are 40% higher in the 10 US states which use a refundable deposit scheme, while Loop claims to have an 80% return rate within 60 days.
Like every new system, scaling is necessary to bring costs down, broaden accessibility, and change behaviour. But in order to scale, there must be investment, policy support, and early adopters. This is one to watch, and throw your support behind wherever possible.
Each brand having its own prefill system with different apps, rules, deposits, and collection points is untenable for both brand and consumer. Prefill's success depends on brands being willing to collaborate under a single, recognisable system. Look for the early movers like Re and Loop who will take care of the logistics for you.
During its in-store pilot, Tesco displayed videos, signs, and leaflets explaining the prefill process, and placed Loop ambassadors throughout its stores. Simple, user-friendly language, roll-out campaigns, and partnerships with campaign groups will be a must for educating consumers and building confidence in a new way of shopping.
When it comes to consumer uptake, the less change the better. Prices, product volumes, and even location on the supermarket shelf should be kept the same — or similar — wherever possible to keep friction to a minimum. Consumers need to consider prefill an easy swap.