Milk & More to trial doorstep deliveries of refilled Coca-Cola
One of the UK’s biggest milk and grocery doorstep delivery firms is set to offer a refill service for Coca-Cola Zero, in partnership with soft drink bottler Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP).
Published 31st May 2023
Register for free and continue reading
Join our growing army of changemakers and get unlimited access to our premium content
Image: Milk & More
From next Monday (5 June), Milk & More customers in South London and some parts of the South will be able to buy one-litre bottles of Coke Zero which they will then be instructed to rinse and leave on their doorstep for collection.
The collected bottles will be sent off for washing and refilling; they can be refilled up to 20 times before they need to be recycled.
Milk & More already offers reusable glass bottles for several of its own-brand lines including milk, water, fruit juices and soft drinks. In total, it delivers 80 million refillable bottles each year already.
Milk & More’s chief executive Patrick Muller said: “Our customers want to be more sustainable, but they are busy people and need simple solutions to help them, so we are confident that they will welcome this trial as it offers them exactly the same service as they already have with Milk & More.”
The business is working with Europe’s largest Coca-Cola bottler, CCEP, on the new trial. It will run for a minimum of eight weeks and the hope is to reach 100,000 customers.
CCEP’s senior sustainability manager Jo Padwick said the trials will allow for the gathering of “valuable insights into how consumers respond to return-based trials in comparison to recycling”.
The Coca-Cola Company, globally, is notably aiming for 25% of its beverage sales to be housed in reusable or returnable packaging by 2030. It announced this target last year.
The Milk & More trials are being touted as the only way, at present, for UK-based customers to receive refillable Coca-Cola to their homes.
Pre-filled reusable Coca-Cola Company products have previously been offered via Tesco and Terracycle, under the Loop scheme. However, Tesco stopped offering Loop services last July.
Many Years ago I worked in Germany for a dairy. I was surprised to find a UK company as a supplier. I was told that they were the only company in Europe with milk bottle refilling expertise. At the time Germany was using cartons pretty well exclusively and the dairy wanted a greener solution.
The coke bottles in the article are almost certainly from Germany because reusable bottles are stronger therefore heavier than one way bottles and so a UK supplier would have to change production tooling for a small run.
There seems to be a fetish in the UK for recycling glass as the ultimate in green. Don’t worry these bottles are still recyclable after 20 low energy round trips.