Asda is poised to change its milk bottle lids from coloured to clear across all UK supermarkets, in a bid to reduce plastic waste across the board.
Shoppers may be fond of the easily identifiable blue, green or red milk tops at present - which represent full-fat, semi-skimmed and skimmed products alike.
But they may now have to look a little closer to tell the difference, with all of the company's own-brand caps on bottles of milk being converted to clear. The move allows the leading supermarket to recycle more parts of the packaging relating to their milk, as coloured caps cannot be at present.
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The Mirror reports that the new caps will also be made from 30% recycled plastic. Asda say that the switch will allow 207 million plastic caps to be recycled to make new bottles each and every year - which equates to roughly 268 tonnes of High-Density Polythene (rHDPE) plastic.
The change comes in partnership with Arla - which is the UK's largest dairy cooperative - and will be rolled out across all Asda stores from this month onward. Asda revealed that the change will also affect Yeo Valley milk.
And while some shoppers may be flustered at the prospect of not being able to identify different types of milk, Asda say that the difference will be distinguishable through coloured labelling, which will remain on all milk bottles.
Fiona Dobson, lead packaging strategy and innovation manager at Asda, said: “At Asda, we are committed to finding ways to reduce our environmental impact. The introduction of clear caps on our milk bottles, is part of our wider commitment to drive 100% recyclability packaging and increase recycled content levels across all of our products by 2025.”
Jayne Paramor, strategic technical manager – plastics at WRAP, added: "We applaud Asda on their decision to join the growing group of UK retailers who are removing pigments from their milk bottle caps.
"Clear, colourless plastics have much higher demand as recycled material, so removing pigments will help to produce valuable recycled plastics and build end markets for these reprocessed materials, ensuring that they find a second life as new products, including new milk bottles and lids.
"This small but impactful change is helping to make the UK’s milk bottles – which are already widely recycled into new milk bottles and a fantastic example of the circular economy for plastics in action – even more recyclable. An exemplary step in developing a circular economy for plastics."
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