A year after its partnership with Loop was announced, Tesco is rolling out the refillable scheme to 10 select brick-and-mortar stores in the east of England. The new in-store service allows customers to buy the refillable containers with branded goods already packed inside. A deposit, starting at 20p, is charged when a product is purchased and refunded upon return. Once empty, the packaging can be returned in-store to be professionally cleaned and refilled, before arriving back in store for the next customer.

“We are determined to tackle plastic waste and one of the ways we can help is by improving reuse options available to customers," said Ken Murphy, Tesco's Group CEO. "Bringing Loop to our stores is a significant milestone in this journey. With 88 everyday products available, we're giving customers a wide range of options and we'll learn as much as we can from this to inform our future packaging plans.”

The full list of companies and brands available in-store at launch are:

Accolade Wines, BrewDog, Bulldog Skincare For Men, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Dr. Will's, ecover + method | Europe | People Against Dirty, Fever-Tree, Good4U, Mackays, The Kraft Heinz Company, Meridian Foods, PepsiCo, Premier Foods, PZ Cussons, Reckitt, Sipsmith, Symington's Limited, Tetley, and Unilever.

Following a trial of recycling points across 171 stores in Wales and the South West, the retailer has also launched a soft plastic packaging recycling point at all its large stores to close the plastic loop and result in the collection and recycling of 1,000 tons of plastic every year.

Tesco's Director of Quality, Sarah Bradbury, said: "We are tackling the impact of plastics by removing and reducing it as much as possible, helping customers move to reusable alternatives and ensuring they can recycle everything that's left."

These initiatives are a key part of the Tesco 4Rs plan: Remove, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.