Tesco is making a huge change to an essential item across all its stores – following in the footsteps of Waitrose, Asda and Aldi.
The supermarket giant intend to introduce clear milk bottle caps across all its stores to help customers recycle.
Meaning they will be scrapping the blue, green and red lids which indicates what type of milk you are buying.
As many, who drink cows milk, will know blue represents full-fat milk, green semi-skimmed, and red skimmed.
The different variants of milk will still be identifiable thanks to coloured block labels around the main bottle.
Tesco is making a huge change to an essential item across all its stores- following in the footsteps of Waitrose, Asda and Aldi
The change will be implemented on around 425 million bottles of milk every year and Tesco customers will notice the change over the coming weeks.
James Waddy, Category Director for Dairy at Tesco, said: ‘Ensuring our packaging is as sustainable as possible is really important to us, and customer feedback on our trial of these new clear milk caps has been overwhelmingly positive.
‘We will continue to look for ways to improve the packaging of our products, and make it even easier for customers to recycle at home.’
Tesco says it has removed around 2.2 billion pieces of plastic from its UK business, however it isn’t the first retailer to make the switch to clear milk lids.
Asda and Aldi revealed they will be changing their milk bottle caps from coloured to clear earlier this year.
While Waitrose led the way when they partnered with Muller on the move, which means the bottle tops can be recycled into food-grade packaging.
Karen Graley, Packaging Innovation lead at Waitrose said: ‘As food businesses, we need to do more to protect our planet from unnecessary plastic waste so we’re delighted to be involved in this trial.’
Currently, coloured milk caps cannot be recycled into food-grade packaging.
However, clear caps can be recycled into high density polyethylene (rHDPE), which can then be used for other packaging.
The supermarket giant intend to introduce clear milk bottle caps across all its stores to help customers recycle
Whether you’re a semi-skimmed fan or a whole milk drinker, it’s likely you can spot your milk on the supermarket stand based on the colour of the lid
Waitrose announced last year that it’s ditching its coloured lids in favour of clear tops, which can be recycled into food-grade packaging
Liam McNamara, Commercial Director at Müller Milk & Ingredients said: ‘Everyone is thinking more about what they buy, the nutritional benefits, the value it represents and the packaging used.
‘We want to be the partner of choice for our customers, we recognise the commitments they are making in this area, and following a successful trial period, then this is another step we can offer.
‘As the first dairy company in the UK to trial clear caps on fresh milk, we are working hard to innovate and lead in issues that are not only important for customers, but for consumers too.
‘In an industry that needs access to more rHDPE, we are really excited to collaborate with Waitrose across all of their shops and trial this additional solution.
‘Our fresh milk bottles already contain up to 40 per cent recycled material, but with access to more, we can partner with our customers to increase this further.
‘But we will not stop there, we are also looking at ways to add recycled content into our clear-caps.’
Ahead of the trial, Muller conducted research to see how shoppers would feel about the cap change.
It found that just over half of all shoppers look for the colour of milk caps when selecting their milk in store, while others either use the different coloured labels, remember the previous location in the fridge or use the fixture signage.
However, 80 per cent of shoppers said they’d be happy to choose a bottle of milk with a clear cap, if it meant the plastic could be recycled.
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