A Marks & Spencer pilot of pre-filled and reusable packaging will be scaled up to involve multiple brands and retailers.

The retail giant began selling eight own label homecare products, including washing-up liquid, in reusable containers in six stores last year, as reported by The Grocer.

Customers paid an initial £2 deposit, redeemable as a voucher for a second purchase when they returned the container.

Now the scheme, in partnership with refillable packaging platform Reposit, is being opened up to other brands and retailers, who have until the end of the month to register their interest, ahead of a launch in June next year.

Cleaning brand, Ecover, is already on board with the project, which aims to offer around 100 products in 200 stores.

Crucially, the products will be in standardised reusable containers, which customers can buy and return anywhere, taking away any potential hassle of the scheme.

It means shoppers will be able to easily pick up their favourite products in packaging that has already been refilled, knowing that it will be used again and again.

In the M&S pilot, sales of some of the reusable products exceeded sales of their single-use packaging equivalent.

Reposit said collaboration between brands and retailers removes the barriers to creating a commercially, operationally and environmentally scalable reuse platform. It is calling on brands and retailers to get involved now, to make the changes consumers want to see and the planet needs.