Loblaw & Ecoborne: Refill program for household products in Quebec stores
CPP Roadmap Target #2
Project Timeline
2022
The Circular Solution
In response to a growing demand to eliminate single-use plastics in stores, Loblaw ran a full year pilot in 2022 in 14 Provigo Stores in Quebec with the Ecoborne Company. Customers were offered the option to reuse their plastic containers to refill three types of products of an eco-friendly brand (laundry detergent, dishwasher soap and moisturizing hand soap). The refill station can also be adapted to any liquid (juice, wine, kombucha, windshield washer, etc.) This supports the circular transition because the vendor offers a turnkey model which encourages consumers to refill containers for household liquid-based products.
Outcomes
- Consumer Education – more consumer education is needed to build more awareness for refill options in-store to support sales and adoption.
- Real estate in-store – need to understand the store real estate required by the kiosk, as it replaces high-volume conventionally packaged products.
- Limited Products Tested – We only tested a limited number of household items (dishwasher soap and hand soap) vs. testing food products.
- Product Used – The brand of the product used for the pilot was not widely recognized by consumers and could have affected uptake.
- Scale – The ability of our vendor to support cross-country logistics is a barrier.
- Regional Focused – Many of the vendors we have looked at in the reusables space are regionally focused and don’t have presence yet in multiple markets (or a presence in Canada in some cases).
- Financial model – as it stands, there is a challenge with the proposed financial model.
Next Steps
Loblaw is planning to expand the pilot and are in the progress of putting together a GoForward plan for 2023 and beyond.
