Sam’s Club China Introduces Label-Free Water Bottles

Sam’s Club is using its Member’s Mark brand to launch a new labeling initiative for plastic water bottles sold in China.

The new label-free drinking water reduces plastic use during manufacturing, leaving just one material to recycle at the end of the bottle’s use, according to Sam’s Club. The lack of a label also reduces ink and energy consumption.

Company officials said the move, while seemingly small, is part of a larger corporate goal at Walmart, the parent company of Sam’s Club. Walmart said it is working toward becoming a regenerative company and has continued to integrate sustainability into its business operations, with sustainable packaging serving as a strategic priority to reduce its operational footprint.

In a statement to Store Brands’ sister publication, Progressive Grocer, from Walmart, there are no plans to launch label-free bottles in the U.S. “We’re always exploring ways to make Member’s Mark packaging more sustainable and are listening closely to feedback from our Member’s Mark community to help guide what comes next,” the company said.

Additionally, Sam’s Club China has also upgraded packaging across multiple Member’s Mark items as it explores different sustainable approaches to update its product lineup. This includes removing plastic components where possible, replacing them with better alternatives, and redesigning processes to make packaging easier to reuse and recycle. Sam's Club now uses aqueous coating on paperboard packaging for multiple items, replacing biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film lamination to make the boxes more recyclable.

The Member’s Mark freeze-dried instant coffee powder, a popular staple in China, now features packaging without the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) window patching film, applied aqueous coating to replace BOPP film lamination, and reduced plastic by approximately 5.8 grams per box.