MORRISONS has moved its own brand fresh milk from plastic bottles to Tetra Pak cartons in a bid to save an initial 100 tonnes of plastic per year.
The moves comes on the back of findings revealing that fresh milk is currently one of the biggest users of plastic packaging within UK supermarkets – accounting for approximately 10% of all plastic used.
Made from plant-based paperboard which is FSC-certified, the supermarket’s cartons contain a ‘very thin’ layer of plastic coating and twist caps made from polyethylene derived from sugarcane.
Tony Fearon, dairy category director at Morrisons, said, “Fresh milk does not need to be in a plastic bottle. It keeps just as fresh in a carton. Fresh milk is the top user of plastic packaging in our stores, so this will result in significant plastic reduction.
“Tetra Pak has also been independently verified as a better sustainable packaging option. If customers take to it, we could be looking to move all of our fresh milk to Tetra Pak cartons in time.”
Hugh Jones, MD of advisory at the Carbon Trust, added, “We welcome this move by Morrisons towards reducing the environmental impact of its milk packaging. Our Carbon Trust ‘carbon neutral’ label, which will feature on these milk products in their new Tetra Pak packaging, recognises the CO2 reduction of this move and certifies that the cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of the packaging is in line with targets.”
Morrisons has committed to a 50% reduction across its own brand primary plastic packaging by 2025. Since 2017, the firm has reduced its own brand plastic packaging by over 8,000 tonnes a year and replaced another 7,000 tonnes so that it is fully recyclable.
