Asda will be changing its milk bottle caps from coloured to clear across all of its supermarkets to reduce its plastic waste.
Shoppers will be very aware of the blue, green and red colouring of milk products - blue represents full-fat milk, green semi-skimmed, and red skimmed.
These bottle tops will now be clear and which will allow them to be recycled which the coloured tops can't be at the moment.
The new tops will also be made from 30% recycled plastic.
Asda says the switch, which will be across Asda's own label fresh milk range, will allow 207million plastic milk tops to be recycled to make new milk bottles each year.
This equates to around 268 tonnes of High-Density Polythene (rHDPE) plastic.
Asda has made the change in partnership with Arla, the UK’s largest dairy cooperative and it will be rolled out in Asda stores from this month.
Asda says it will also affect Yeo Valley fresh milk.
Shoppers shouldn't be worried about picking up the wrong type of milk as they will be able to distinguish between the different varieties by the 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.”
The move mirrored Aldi who also announced they were ditching coloured milk tops earlier this week.
Aldi's move came after a successful trial with milk supplier Müller in August last year.
The news comes after posh rival Waitrose confirmed it was ditching red, blue and green milk bottle tops across its Essential range in June last year.
Jayne Paramor, strategic technical manager – plastics at WRAP “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.”
