Waitrose is permanently scrapping the coloured caps on all own-label milk bottles after a successful trial in stores across the country.
The supermarket is replacing the hard-to-recycle blue, green and red milk bottle caps on all Essential Waitrose milk with a clear version.
It’s also planning to roll the caps out more widely across other Waitrose own-brand milk lines next year.
The trial, which took place between 4 and 30 April in all 331 UK stores, was done in partnership with milk producer Müller.
Clear caps can be recycled into food-grade packaging as opposed to coloured ones, which means the new milk bottles will now be 100% recyclable.
“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,” said Waitrose milk buyer Lisa Oaten.
“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 said the move to eliminate the coloured caps could increase availability of recycled high density polyethylene (rHDPE) – which is currently in high demand as businesses look to reduce their dependency on virgin plastic – by 1,560 tonnes each year.
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