Shoppers have been flocking to social media after being left confused by a major change to milk bottles that has "messed with their heads".
Over the past few months, the colour-coded green, blue and red milk bottle lids have been steadily replaced with clear lids - and it has left many people feeling taken aback.
Major supermarket chains, such as Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, Sainsbury's and The Co-op, initially began trialling the colourless lids last year as they are more environmentally friendly. Colour coded lids cannot be recycled as easily, whereas the colourless caps can.
What are shoppers saying?
Despite the change being made with good intentions, many shoppers have become so used to the colour coded lids that they have flocked to Twitter to express their confusion.
A Twitter user shared a snap of his milk bottle and said: "The cap on this milk has upset me more than it should."
And it looks like many shoppers agree, as the tweet has since managed to gain almost 200 retweets and over 7,600 likes from those who were just as baffled.
In response, one shopper joked: "I noticed this today.. what’s that all about? Don’t want to milk it mind."
A second replied: "The amount of times I've went to pour my milk into my tea and never realized the cap was still on." A third agreed: "Me too. It should be green and nowt else".
Another user also uploaded a snap of his clear lid and joked: "End of society as we know it... keep trying to pour milk into my coffee with the cap on."
One person shared an embarrassing story: "I was in a coffee shop today and I witnessed for the first time clear top milk and the poor barista tried to pour it with the lid still on. Please change it back to stop the second hand embarrassment."
A user admitted: "Keep thinking there’s no cap on the milk after they changed it to clear plastic. Messing with my head that."
Another agreed: "The bottle of milk I bought today has a clear cap and it’s odd to see."
One person hit out against the change, saying: "Tesco have whacked a clear lid on the milk instead of the trusted green. An international war crime."
Why are milk bottle tops now clear?
Supermarkets have been switching to white and clear milk bottle caps as they are easier to recycle than colour coded ones.
While both lids are made from the same plastic, the coloured ones cannot be recycled back into food grade packaging.
By using white or clear milk bottle tops, businesses and consumers can reduce colour contamination in the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) stream.
HDPE has seen a surge in demand from businesses who are looking for more sustainable ways to become less dependent on packaging.
What supermarkets have introduced colourless lids?
The new clear and colourless lids have already been spotted in supermarkets including Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl and the Co-op.
Many of them decided to roll out the colourless lids permanently after launching a successful trial in partnership with Muller, which some supermarkets say generated a positive response from shoppers.
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