UK – Tesco, a United Kingdom supermarket chain, has started using clear caps on its own-brand milk bottles to help improve recyclability.
As part of the company’s efforts to enhance recycling efforts and promote sustainability, Tesco is replacing colored plastic caps with clear ones on more than 425 million bottles of milk each year.
According to Tesco, this change both simplifies the recycling process for customers and has potential environmental benefits.
Colored plastic currently needs to be processed separately from clear packaging, and the change means 3,900 extra tonnes of plastic will be recycled, claims Tesco.
The move will be implemented throughout all Tesco stores and across 4-pint, 2-pint and 1-pint milk bottles.
Different variants of milk – whole, semi-skimmed and skimmed – will still be identifiable by colored block labels around the main bottle.
James Waddy, category director for Dairy, says: “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 follows its “4Rs” strategy for plastic packaging – aiming to remove plastic where it can, reduce where it can’t, reuse more and recycle what’s left.
Earlier this month, the supermarket announced a trial of fresh mince “pillow packs,” which use 70% less plastic and are fully recyclable at in-store soft plastic collection points.
To date, Tesco says it has removed around 2.2 billion pieces of plastic from its UK business, including 200 million bags from Tesco.com deliveries, 100 million extra lids from products such as wipes, creams, yogurts and desserts, and 33 million pieces of plastic from bakery bread and doughnuts.
Woolworths removes 800t of plastic from own-brand packaging over 2023
In another development, supermarket chain Woolworths’ 2023 sustainability report has revealed that it has removed 800 tonnes (t) of plastic from its own-brand packaging throughout the year.
The retailer released the report as it reached the midpoint of its 2025 Sustainability Plan.
In the sustainability review, Woolworths said that it used 1,200t of recycled plastic in its own-brand packaging.
The retailer posted a 26% reduction equivalent of baseline year virgin plastic packaging and 14,000t in virgin plastic reduction against the baseline.
Throughout the year, Woolworths has undertaken various initiatives to reduce virgin plastic usage including the introduction of 80% recycled polyethylene terephthalate plastic in Woolworths’ bakery trays and clamshells, which led to a reduction of 1,222t of virgin plastic.
The retailer also eliminated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) film from its fresh-cut fruit and vegetables and increased the content of recycled high-density polyethylene terephthalate in 3l of its milk bottles by 30%.
In addition, the company removed 69t of PVC bags in the BIG W cotton bedding range and piloted kerbside-recyclable paper-based sealable bags for the Macro Wholefoods Market nuts range.
The sustainability review also revealed that the average recycled content in its own-brand primary and secondary packaging increased to 49%.
Woolworths claims 3.4 million tonnes of material waste are produced every year in Australia, of which only 13% is recycled while 84% ends up in landfill.
The retailer said that it is working to increase access to recyclability and recycled content to address the impact of packaging in both Australia and New Zealand.
As part of its overarching 2025 Sustainability Plan, Woolworths aims to reduce usage of virgin plastic packaging by 50% and achieve 60% recycled content across its brand.
It also aims to make 100% of its own-brand packaging widely recyclable, reusable, or compostable by that period.
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