Co-op is planning to remove coloured bottle tops from its milk cartons in a bid to make recycling easier. Soon, all coloured tops will be replaced with clear ones in stores across the UK.
While shoppers are used to seeing blue, green and red caps on whole, semi-skimmed and skimmed milk cartons, Co-op is planning to get rid of them all in favour of clear ones. The supermarket chain said clear bottle tops allow the plastic to be recycled more easily into food-grade packaging.
The move follows successful trials on semi-skimmed milk in more than 400 Co-op stores in August and, with ‘clear’ recyclability gains to be made, green caps will be switched to clear in all of its stores by the end of next month. Co-op will then eradicate red (skimmed milk caps) and blue (whole milk caps) in early 2023.
Adam Williams, Co-op’s milk buyer, explained how the changes will help. He said: “There are changes in store for how shoppers see milk bottle tops, with the new caps able more easily recycled and retained in the food sector unlike their coloured counterparts.
"There is limited availability of food grade recycled plastic, and that is a challenge. It is important that packaging is viewed as a valuable resource.
"We continue to work to explore new ways to make it easier to recycle and re-use these materials, and small changes to everyday issues can collectively add up to make a big difference – this is a ‘clear’ solution that can reduce the dependency on virgin plastic in the supply chain."
Clear bottle tops reduce colour contamination in the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) stream. Taking the colour out of the caps allows them to be recycled along with the bottle.
Adam Herriott from WRAP, The Waste and Resources Action Programme charity, said: "This development has helped the HDPE milk bottle increase its reputation as a shining light of the circular economy and will enable the caps to be recycled with the bottle and go back into food grade applications and therefore able to be recycled multiple times into high grade, high value materials and products.
"It is, however, still vitally important that citizens follow the advice of ensuring that they recycle their bottle with the ‘cap on’ to make sure that they are captured and recycled effectively - We must all continue, as in industry, to go further and ensure we bring in more changes that benefit shoppers and the environment."
