"The packaging on the shelves is already highly optimized for sustainability"

For about a year and a half, customers in selected dm stores were able to refill organic products themselves. Now the trial is coming to an end. In an interview, Kerstin Erbe, Managing Director for Product Management and Sustainability at the drugstore chain, explains why the refill stations will not become a permanent feature and what conclusions the company is drawing from the zero-waste trial for its future packaging strategies.

"We noticed that there is a general interest in refill options among our customers. However, many found using the refill stations time-consuming and finally preferred the convenience of quickly grabbing pre-packaged products from the shelf."

"The interest and positive feedback from our customers regarding the refill offer unfortunately did not align with actual usage of the stations. Despite extensive communication efforts to promote the refill option, we were unable to achieve a significant increase in usage. All of these insights are valuable to us and will inform future projects."

"During the test phase, we conducted a comprehensive analysis comparing the overall climate impact of the refill stations with that of packaged goods on the shelf. While the stations do offer benefits in terms of packaging reduction alone, the overall sustainability falls short when taking the entire process chain into account. This includes factors such as the production of the stations, the filling, cleaning, and reuse of the capsules, the manufacturing of returnable containers, and transport routes and packaging."

"The packaging on our shelves is already highly optimized for sustainability. This gives it a competitive climate impact assessment compared to the refill stations in a broader context. In some cases, packaged goods even require less logistics packaging than unpackaged concepts. Every packaging solution we use undergoes regular, thorough review. We are constantly looking for opportunities to reduce material use and switch to more sustainable options – for example, by exploring the use of recycled carbon dioxide as packaging material. In addition, we strive to take a holistic view of the environmental impact of all dm brand products and continuously work to minimize it. Against this background, the decision was made to end the dmBio refill station trial and not roll it out into regular operations."

"Since the dmBio refill stations were a trial from the outset, we don’t see the end of the project as a failure. We’re using the insights we gained to further our efforts in making our product range more sustainable, refining our service offering in line with customer needs, developing new concepts, and testing additional options."

"As a company, we see ourselves as having both a role model function and a significant responsibility to our environment, to people, and to nature. Our challenge is to act in a way that is both economically and environmentally sustainable – operating within the planet’s boundaries. We are therefore committed to promoting environmentally friendly practices across all areas of our business and to making a positive, lasting contribution to society and the planet. We still believe in zero-waste concepts and do not rule out testing them again in the future under new conditions."

"One of our ongoing goals is to reduce packaging. We will therefore continue to explore sustainable concepts and do not rule out testing zero-waste solutions again under new circumstances. We remain committed to trying new approaches to sustainable shopping. The learnings from this project will feed into the further development of our product range and services.

As for the Austrian market, it must be considered individually and is only partly comparable to the German market. Between 2020 and 2022, we also tested refill stations in selected dm stores in Germany for products in the washing, cleaning, and personal care categories. Here too, we ultimately found that the stations were not used enough to offer a climate advantage over our already sustainably optimized packaged products."