Sustainability
Don’t measure a refill scheme by bottles sold
By Prof. Alessandro Buffoli, PhD
The first bottle is the start of the scheme. The useful numbers arrive when customers need the product again.
A brand sells 5,000 reusable bottles in a launch campaign. That is a sales result. I would hesitate to call it a reuse result until I knew what happened to the bottles afterwards.
Some customers may refill them regularly. Others may use them once, keep them in a cupboard, or replace a bottle they already owned. Counting every sale as repeated use assumes the behaviour the scheme was supposed to create.
UNEP’s life-cycle assessment of single-use products and alternatives places reuse at the centre of reducing dependence on single-use products. That broad conclusion gives businesses a direction. It does not establish the environmental performance of a particular bottle and refill system without examining how that system operates.
Follow a bottle through the second purchase
For a proposed refill launch, I would follow groups of first-time buyers over a stated period. How many make a first refill? How long does it take? How many refill again? Keep the customers who disappear in the denominator rather than reporting only on enthusiastic regulars.
Product usage matters. A household that has not yet used its original contents has not necessarily rejected refilling. The follow-up window should allow a realistic opportunity to return. Otherwise the report penalises slow users and rewards fast consumption without explaining either.
The refill experience also has to compete with buying a replacement. Consider price, availability, travel, carrying the container and any preparation the system requires. A small discount may look attractive in a presentation while leaving an inconvenient journey unchanged.
I would first look for ways to place refilling within an existing routine. Reliable stock at a shop the customer already visits may matter more than an elaborate launch event. That is a hypothesis to test with the intended users, not a universal claim about convenience.
Report behaviour and impact separately
Successful repeat use is evidence about behaviour. Environmental performance still depends on the container, refill packaging, transport, cleaning where relevant, and what the system replaces. A qualified assessment needs the relevant data and boundaries. I would not invent a universal number of refills after which every product becomes “sustainable”.
The commercial report should show contribution from the whole relationship, including the original container, later refills and the cost of serving them. A profitable starter bottle followed by expensive, rarely purchased refills is a different business from the one described in the campaign.
The launch photograph will show the new bottles. My preferred follow-up photograph would be less impressive: the same bottles, worn slightly, back at the counter. That is where the intended habit becomes visible.
Prof. Alessandro Buffoli, PhD
Assistant Professor of Marketing at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.