Business
Prefill at supermarkets
UK’s largest grocery retailers set sights on prefill to take more single-use packaging off shelf.
16 July 2025
Recycle Now’s citizen recycling tracker reveals huge interest among the public to try packaging-free refill shops and ditch single-use packaging.
To make refill shopping even easier, Recycle Now – in partnership with six refill brands – has mapped the locations of hundreds of refill stores throughout the UK, from Brighton to Edinburgh.
Charting 675 places on the Refill Locator, the online tool shows shops within a 25-mile radius of your postcode and where alternative returnable options are available for home delivery.
According to its data, the most refill shops can be found in London (63 stores), followed by Bristol (27), Oxford (22), Brighton & Hove (21), Gloucester (19), York (19), Bath (16), Exeter (15), Swansea (14) and Bournemouth (13).
Shoppers can use the Recycle Now Locator to pinpoint their local refill shop in seconds, and discover a range of items from cleaning products to personal care, and from store cupboard essentials to gift ideas.
The range of locations supports the number of shoppers interested in alternatives to single-use disposable packaging.
The latest citizen recycling tracker, published during Recycle Week (2025), found that close to nine in 10 people interviewed would be motivated to shop this way (87% online and 89% in-store).
When it comes to taking our own packaging into a shop to refill, the older generation is most open to reusing packaging – but the younger generation is already taking packaging back to refill.
25% of those aged 18-34 say they have taken their own packaging to an in-store refill in the last few years, compared with 8% aged 55 plus.
Interest is high in both age groups though, with 42% of 18- to 34-year-olds who have never tried refill shopping keen to, and 56% aged 55+ also keen to try shopping this way.
Overall, slightly more women are open to this form of shopping compared with men (55% vs 47%), but more men have already shopped this way in the last few years (15% compared with 13% women).
The recycling tracker survey also highlights common ways in which people are already avoiding excessive packaging, with the humble bar of soap returning to many bathrooms.
Over half of people (56%) use bars while just over half (51%) regularly refill reusable coffee or water bottles, 35% buy concentrated cleaning products and a quarter (25%) have used a dry shampoo or condition bar in the last few years.
‘We’re starting to see greater movement on reuse across the industry. For example, last year nine of the UK’s largest grocery retailers pledged to examine how reusable packaging could be implemented across their stores and online. To support these industry efforts, we must also inform citizens about the benefits of reuse, to drive up demand.
‘The Recycle Now Refill Locator makes it easy to find your nearest refill store and try this way of shopping. You’ll be amazed at the range of goods available and how convenient it can become to become a refill shopper. The sector hasn’t had the easiest time of late and by supporting these businesses, and the innovations coming into our larger high street stores, we can help them become permanent fixtures and reduce packaging waste.’
LOWELLE BRYAN
Senior Specialist WRAP, which runs Recycle Now
When properly managed, plastics can be a part of a circular economy of packaging – but it’s estimated that 11 million tonnes of plastics enter the oceans annually.
Plastic packaging is responsible for 40% of this plastic waste and is the biggest source of leakage into the environment (WEF New Plastics Economy).
We need to change our relationship with packaging – remove and reduce it where possible and switch from single-use to refillable or reusable formats, one of the biggest ways to reduce plastic pollution.
Moving to reuse models could reduce annual plastic leakage into the ocean by 20% by 2040 (Breaking the Plastic Wave, 2020). If every UK home refilled just one item each week it would remove 1.4 billion single-use packaging items every year (The Big Plastic Count 2024, Greenpeace & Everyday Plastic).
Beyond reducing waste, reusable and refillable packaging also reduces demand for new packaging, lessening the extraction of virgin materials and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
It can save shoppers money by enabling them to buy only what they need and slashes the amount of packaging they have to contend with at home.
The difficulty these stores and retailers face is competing with a heavily optimised single-use system that’s cheap and efficient.
We need a systemic shift away from this model, which requires investment in infrastructure and a supportive regulatory environment.
Recycle Now is encouraging refill shops to get in touch via WRAP to be added to the Refill Locator.
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