ASDA is bringing its largest eco refill store so far to York in the hopes of helping more customers reduce, reuse or recycle packaging.

Coming this October, the supermarket will be trialling 18 standalone bays full of more than 70 branded and own-label products in refillable format.

there will be brand new product types including dried pet food such as Whiskas and Pedigree and additional ranges of snacking, desserts and baking products.

Other partnerships include Yorkshire Tea, an increased range of Kellogg’s cereals, new own-label and Nestle cereals, Napolina pasta, and Tilda rice.

New 'prefilled' trials will feature Persil, Radox, Simple and Alberto Balsam products from Unilever in stainless steel reusable bottles.

York Press: This is what the refill zone looks like in Asda's Middleton store.This is what the refill zone looks like in Asda's Middleton store.

These will be tested in two refill formats; refill on the go where shoppers can refill their bottle using a machine in-store and, in a global first for Unilever and Asda, return on the go where shoppers can pick up pre-filled bottles off the shelf and return them in-store once used.

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Susan Thomas, Director of Commercial Sustainability at Asda, said: “We know that reducing packaging waste matters to our customers and they have embraced the refill options available at the Middleton store, with many of the products available already exceeding expectations.

“Our ultimate goal is to make refill and reuse a part of every Asda shopping trip and to achieve this we have to make it easy, accessible and affordable for all our customers to shop this way. Middleton was a great introduction to how customers engage with refill products and we are now looking to accelerate these learnings by trialling different refill options in more stores to understand which aspects can potentially developed further.”

The idea was first trialled in Asda's Middleton store last October and saw many customers travelling from outside the local area to shop sustainably.

Pre-Loved, which was also initially trialled in Middleton, is now in over 50 stores across the country, while the supermarket is also evaluating plans to roll-out increased customer recycling facilities to more stores later this year.

Sebastian Munden, Unilever UK & Ireland’s Executive Vice President & General Manager said: “Asda share our ambition and urgency to tackle plastic pollution, so it’s great to scale up our partnership with them and continue to test different refill models in their stores.

"Including our first ever trial of reusable stainless steel bottles which are available pre-filled on shelf and then dropped off in-store once used.  By testing and learning what works best in-store, we can understand how to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to make sustainable choices, whilst still using the brands they know and love.”

Meanwhile Jo Morley, Head of Campaigns at City to Sea, the organisation behind World Refill Day, said: ”We know that the public are more concerned about plastic pollution than ever before, and looking for ways to live with less waste, so we welcome the news that Asda are going to be expanding their refill offering with the launch of four new refill stores.

"This World Refill Day, we’re encouraging people to make changes to their everyday shopping and find out what they can refill near them, and its brilliant to see Asda leading the way, making refill and reuse more accessible and more affordable.”