Now you can walk into a store with an old bottle and get a refill of Hindustan Unilever Limited’s (HUL’s) brands, including Surf Excel, Vim and Comfort, without having to purchase a new packet.
HUL has launched an in-store vending model for its homecare products with the aim to reuse, reduce and recycle plastic, called ‘Smart Fill’. It offers consumers an option to reuse their plastic bottles by refilling products from HUL’s brands through the use of the smart refiller.
To access products from the Smart Fill machine, consumers can either use their old empty bottles or purchase a Smart Fill bottle from the store at a nominal price. As an incentive, consumers are being offered ₹30 off on the MRP or effective price at the store if they get their own bottle and ₹15 off to those who purchase the Smart Fill bottle.
Prabha Narasimhan – Executive Director (Home Care) for Hindustan Unilever and Vice-President (Home Care) for Unilever South Asia, said, “Through this initiative, we wish to bring about a positive change in our society and make continuous progress towards a circular economy. The launch of the Smart Fill vending machine is yet another step to address one of the challenges of managing plastic packaging waste. We hope this innovation will bring awareness and give consumers an opportunity to contribute effectively in managing plastic waste.”
HUL has partnered with Reliance Retail for this project.
Damodar Mall, CEO Grocery Retail at Reliance, said, “We are excited about this initiative with HUL. Reuse & Recycle is a natural instinct in Indian families. These societal habits must find their modern expressions, too. HUL Refillery is one such smart effort. Our shoppers at Smart Superstore are already loving it. We are looking forward to taking the Refillery idea to many more urban centres, along with the HUL Team.”
According to their press release, HUL has committed to ensuring that 100 per cent of the company’s plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. It has further committed to halving the use of virgin plastic by reducing the absolute use of plastic packaging and accelerating the use of recycled plastic. The company is also committed to collect and process more plastic packaging waste than the plastic packaging it uses. HUL will also enable the collection and processing of over 1 lakh tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste through its partners across the country.