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Case Study: Ocado

  • Alice Rackley

    CEO and Co-founder Polytag

  • Suwar Mert

    CEO and Founder Bower

  • Laura Fernandez

    Senior Packaging Sustainability Manager Ocado Retail

In 2023, Ocado partnered with Polytag and the free recycling app Bower, trialled the UK’s first national deposit return scheme for recyclable products.

Currently, legislation for deposit return schemes is set to land in the UK in 2025. Customers will pay a deposit – likely to be 20p – on top of the price of their drinks bottles and will be able to redeem the 20p once their bottle has been recycled properly. Deposit return schemes have been proven to increase recycling rates and work brilliantly in much of mainland Europe. The problem with this system is that the typical deposit return scheme model was developed in the 1980s and uses reverse vending machines (RVMs). These machines are carbon-intensive, a great expense both financially and spatially for retailers, and also inconvenient for customers.

Using a unique-every-time Polytag GS1 Digital Link QR code, customers can scan the product once and get their deposit back. The unique everytime QR codes enables the app to issue deposit securely, as they can only be scanned once per item. But something like this hasn’t been done on a nationwide scale – until now.

  • 93% of Bower users were positive about a digital return scheme

  • 71% would prefer a QR code to claim a deposit back

  • 58% would prefer to use an RVM in a supermarket

Ocado retail

Making a positive environment impact is a stronger motivator to participate in the scheme than financial reward.

(50% vs 36%) User survey, 2023

Photo of a smartphone scanning a QR code on milk packaging.
  • 20K+rewards redeemed in 56 days

  • 20preward for each redeem action

  • 7.5bottles recycled per user on average

Invisible Tags

As part of Polytag’s two-tag solution, the company also has Invisible Tags applied to the packaging to trace it back to recycling centres. Polytag currently has two UV Tag Readers based in Teesside and Abergele Material Recovery Facilities. The Tags are low-cost to apply and count the number of bottles spotted on the plastics conveyor, using smart cameras and an internet connection.
Photo of a smartphone in front of milk packaging.
  • 85%of customers registered on the Bower app during the trial

  • 87%of people who scanned the product went on to recycle it

  • 100%of participants were based in the UK

API connection to ensure one-time redemptions

This world first full-scale Digital DRS demonstration delivered by Polytag and Bower was enabled by a secure, seamless connection between the technology stacks. Polytag generated and stored over 2.5 million unique serialised codes that were applied to Ocado Retail’s full range of six fresh milk products. An API was leveraged so that when Bower App users scanned a QR code on their Ocado Retail milk bottle, a real-time check was performed to verify that the given unique serialised code was in the Polytag ledger, and to check whether it had already been scanned, or if it was redeemable. The performance results of the API were 100% uptime, and above-average response speeds for serialised code checks (code verify), and scans (deposit redemptions). The API was simple to set up, tested thoroughly before the trial launched, and was fully secure as per rest API protocols and OAuth security.