Morrisons has become the first supermarket to scrap plastic milk cartons and replace them with its own-brand fresh milk in plant-based cardboard cartons. Nine types of Morrisons fresh milk will be sold in carbon-neutral Tetra Pak cartons, saving around 100 tonnes of plastic each year. Fresh milk currently accounts for around 10 percent of all plastic packaging used in the UK, but the new Tetra Pak cartons will instead be made from plant-based paperboard. The new cartons contain a very thin layer of plastic coating and twist caps made from polyethylene – procured from sustainably sourced sugarcane. The nine products have also been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, Carbon Trust, and Carbon Neutral. 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, Managing Director of Advisory at the Carbon Trust, said: ‘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, recognizes the CO2 reduction of this move and certifies that the cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of the packaging is in line with targets.’Decreasing the volume of single-use plastic in stores is said to be the top concern for the supermarket giant’s customers.
