In-Store Recycling And Reuse: John Lewis & Partners

Resource Futures helped John Lewis consider which types of products customers might want to take back to their stores to recycle and which collections would be likely to be viable.

Objectives

John Lewis wanted an indication of the feasibility of in-store collections for different types of products within different departments in their stores.

They wanted to know:

Which products or materials would be most viable to collect?
What types of collection arrangements could work?

Approach

We provided the following support:

A description of the types of ‘conventional’ recycling and reuse collections already available to UK consumers
A survey of different types of in-store collections that are already provided in John Lewis stores
Competitor analysis covering different types of innovative collections provided by other UK and international retailers. This included Deposit Return Schemes and other customer incentivisation.
A review of market research on recycling and reuse behaviours and customer motivations
Analysis of the practicalities of recycling for a long list of over 50 products
Detailed costs-benefit modelling over the life cycle for a range of products

Outcomes

Results of the research allowed us to identify:

A shortlist of ‘candidate’ products which would be most likely to be viable
Which types of products may appeal to different types of customers
A business case for enhanced collections in John Lewis stores for different types of products
Recommendations for implementation, including partnerships with operators.

The findings are now being used by John Lewis to develop their customer recycling proposition.

The project demonstrates our expertise in market research, understanding customer behaviours and the practicalities and viability of circular recycling and reuse collections.