UK supermarket chain, Asda, is trialling a new recyclable milk bottle made of paper in four of its stores in Cornwall, south-west of London.
The innovative bottle, called the GreenBottle, was created by British inventor Martin Myerscough in 2007. It features two parts: a sturdy biodegradable paper outer shell and an inner liner made of plastic.
According to the product’s website, the GreenBottle is a ‘planet friendly’ alternative to plastic bottles. The bottle has been designed to be split apart so that the outer shell can be disposed of in paper recycling and the inner liner can be placed in the plastic recycling stream.
Asda’s Head of Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing, Chris Brown, said: “As a business we’re always looking for ways to improve sustainability. The milk category is obviously massive for us and if GreenBottle helps reduce waste in our customers’ homes, there’s no doubting it has the potential to become the next great British invention.”
According to plastics waste management group, Recoup, UK households use an average of 500 plastic bottles each year, of which just 130 are recycled.
In Australia, plastics made up 40 per cent of all rubbish removed on Clean Up Australia Day in 2010, with drink containers such as fruit juice bottles and PET containers as the dominant plastic wastes.
GreenBottle’s Managing Director Andy Brent said the company had spent the past few years redesigning the GreenBottle to ensure it was not only environmentally sustainable but also commercially viable.
“We first tested prototypes of [the] GreenBottle a couple of years, ago, and have been working tirelessly since to optimise our design,” he said. “We now have a bottle that can be produced, filled and distributed in exactly the same way as plastic, and which consumers tell us they overwhelmingly prefer.”