Countdown offers bring-your-own container service

Friday, 7 June 2019

Countdown customers soon to be able to BYO containers in limited stores as a new scheme to reduce single use plastics is trialled.

Countdown will introduce bring-your-own containers at its deli, meat and seafood counters from Monday, June 10.

It will be trialled in its Christchurch, Amberley, Kaiapoi, Rangiora and Rolleston stores, and in Auckland's Mt Eden and Mt Roskill stores, for up to two months before a national roll-out, the company said.

The trial in selected stores was to assess if training was up to scratch for the new processes, including weighing, cleaning and drying containers.

Customers had been pushing for a bring-your-own (BYO) option, Countdown's general manager corporate affairs, safety and sustainability, Kiri Hannifin said.

Countdown is trialing a system where customers can bring their own container to the deli, meat and seafood counters.

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Customers could bring clean waterproof containers into stores, which would then be cleaned with a food-safe detergent, and dried by supermarket staff to ensure safety.

Supermarkets were required by law to ensure food sold wasn't contaminated by its packaging, and Countdown had to take reasonable steps to make sure customer containers would be suitable, Hannifin said.

The move comes less than a month after Foodstuff's supermarkets announced a bring-your-own container scheme in its North Island stores.

Countdown is introducing BYO containers from June 10 for its deli, meat and seafood counters in selected stores.

New Zealand Food Safety's director of food regulation, Paul Dansted, said supermarkets were responsible for managing the risks of cross-contamination up to the point of sale. The regulator supported initiatives by supermarkets as long as risks were managed. How they managed it was up to individual businesses, he said.

'This means that food businesses choose what works best for them, providing the food is kept safe and suitable,' he said.

Chief executive of recycling solutions business 3R Group, and programme manager for the Packaging Forum, Adele Rose, said there had been enough work done internationally to know that BYO systems work.

Adele Rose says customers need to play their part to make the programme successful.

Some UK supermarket chains had been doing it for quite a few years.

'The problem in New Zealand is the proliferation of single use plastics, and it's great that people might be taking along their refillable containers. The key point there is that they're multi-use,' Rose said.

Both Countdown and Foodstuffs were members of the forum and it was great they were taking a leadership position, but consumers needed to play their part too, she said.

'I think it's a dual role … that would be to make sure we are actually taking advantage of the opportunity and playing by the rules, because the food hygiene is paramount.'

Bring your own containers have been used for many years at bulk foods retailer Bin Inn, which mainly sells dry goods, and offers customers a 5 per cent discount for doing so.

'Our customers really get behind it and we've had strong growth in that area. It's a very significant part of our business. It has been for a long time and it has just gotten bigger,' business development manager Trevor Craig said.

Hannifin was hopeful the programme would get good pick-up from its customers.

'As more and more customers become aware of it, and take-up increases, we'll be able to measure reduction. After the first few weeks of the plastic bag ban, 60 per cent of people bought their own, an incredible take-up, so whether or not this goes the same way will be interesting,' she said.

Along with the BYO initiative, Countdown was reinstating the soft plastics recycling scheme in its Auckland stores, as well as introducing misting systems in the produce section to reduce the need for packaging on fruit and vegetables, and trialling different bag options in the bakeries.