18 May 2007


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Green bid Waitrose loans out bike trailers

Waitrose

environmental

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Waitrose has gone one step further in the supermarkets' bid to make groceries greener by loaning out bike trailers so that customers can cut out car journeys as well as carrier bags.

Waitrose: bike trailers are latest bid to be environmentally friendly

Its store in Brighton has become one of three outlets offering the free service to account card customers.

Five trailers, part funded by the local council, are available for a day at a time.

If the scheme proves successful, more will be purchased for Brighton and other stores.

In a joint launch this week, the same outlet was one of 14 Waitrose branches which opened an eco-friendly, disposable bag-free till aimed at testing the market for the bag-less supermarket of the future.

Significantly, another – Saffron Walden – is not handing out any free carrier bags in the two-week experiment which concludes on 27 May. During the trial, customers have the option of purchasing a 10p bag for life, but a cashier at the Brighton outlet told TalkingRetail.com: “You'd be surprised how many customers are bringing in their own bags.”

Of course Waitrose is not alone in its bid to help save the planet. Many supermarket groups are working with the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the government to reduce carrier bag use by 25% by the end of 2008.

Earlier in the month, for example, Asda ran a similar green till pilot at its Old Kent Road store in London and a so-called packaging amnesty at two other stores. It is also continuing to promote its Bag for Life campaign, offering to replace five used disposable carrier bags with one of its re-usable bags.

Sainsbury's claimed an industry eco-friendly first at the end of April when it stopped giving out disposable carrier bags in its stores in one of its monthly "Make the Difference" days.

Instead it gave away re-usable bags, which it says are used at least 20 times by customers, reducing disposable bag consumption by an estimated 90 million a year.

Tesco, meanwhile, gives extra Clubcard points to customers who use its re-usable bags.

by Juliet Morrison


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