A trial at the Waitrose supermarkets in the UK to replace coloured - blue, green and red - milk bottle caps with a clear version, has been a success. Waitrose has now confirmed that the change will be permanent in all 331 of its shops with immediate effect.
Using clear caps instead of coloured ones will now allow the bottle and cap to be recycled together in a ‘closed-loop’ system, with the caps able to be reprocessed into food-grade material. This was not possible with the coloured caps and Waitrose estimates that the move could increase the amount of rHDPE available on the market back into the food sector by 1560 tonnes per year. Demand for rHDPE currently far outstrips supply.
Müller, who buy a fifth of all milk produced by British farms and who Waitrose partnered with on this trial is the first dairy company in the UK to trial clear caps on fresh milk.
According to Müller, who conducted research to gauge the attitude of consumers to the change prior to trialling the new caps, slightly more than half of all shoppers look for the colour of milk caps when selecting their milk in-store. This feedback led to a re-design of the artwork on the labels on the Essential Milk bottles with more colour to add to the bottles’ appeal and to assist customers in selecting their milk of choice in store.
Müller also found that eight out of ten shoppers said that they would choose a bottle of milk with a clear cap that could be recycled into food-grade material over a coloured one that could not be. Therefore, the company concluded that consumers would support the change to clear caps if it further improved the availability of food-grade recycled plastic material. The company will now produce the fresh milk bottles in-house which are 100% recyclable and contain up to 40% food-grade recycled material.
“Partner and customer feedback during the trial has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Lisa Oaten, milk buyer at Waitrose.
The new clear caps are first being introduced on all Essential Waitrose milk, with plans to roll out more widely across the Waitrose own label milk range next year.
“This national rollout will help us achieve our goal of making more of the plastic we use circular and fit to be repurposed time and time again,” said Oaten