Waitrose scraps coloured milk caps
Waitrose has announced that it has permanently scrapped the coloured cap on all Essential Waitrose milk in all 331 of its stores.
In a UK first, this means the bottle and cap can now be recycled together in a ‘closed loop’ system which was not possible with the coloured caps. Waitrose said this could increase the amount of rHDPE available on the market back into the food sector by 1,560 tonnes per annum.
The moves comes after a successful trial earlier this year in which the colourful blue, green and red milk bottle caps were replaced with a clear version. In addition, the label artwork has been redesigned to add more colour to assist customers in selecting their milk of choice in store.
The new clear caps will be used on all Essential Waitrose milk which accounts for 44% of the supermarket’s milk sales. The supermarket is planning to roll out more widely across the Waitrose own label milk range next year.
Lisa Oaten, milk buyer at Waitrose, said: “Milk is one of our best-selling products, so to be able to bring this packaging improvement to an everyday essential across all of our stores is fantastic.
“Partner and customer feedback during the trial has been overwhelmingly positive and 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.”
Waitrose partnered with milk buyer Muller on the trial, which is the first dairy company in the UK to pilot clear caps on fresh milk. The company will produce the fresh milk bottles in-house which are 100% recyclable and contain up to 40% food grade recycled material.
