Milk bottle producers in the UK are on track to meet the 2010 packaging targets defined in the Milk Roadmap as 85% of plastic bottles now contain a 10% recycled content. The Roadmap was introduced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra, London / UK; www.defra.gov.uk) in May 2008 and set a target of 10% recycled content in milk packaging by 2010. This level would rise to 30% in 2015 and 50% by 2020. After the two-year review of the Roadmap’s progress, Tim Bennett, chairman of the Dairy Farming Information Centre (Kenilworth / UK; www.dairyco.org.uk), who is also chairman of the Milk Roadmap Taskforce, said: “The success of the Roadmap demonstrates the huge commitment and cooperation that is taking place between producers, processors and retailers.”

In April 2010, high street retailer Sainsbury’s (London / UK; www.sainsburys.co.uk) said all its own-brand plastic milk bottles now contain 10% recycled HDPE– see Plasteurope.com of 26.04.2010.Earlier, at the start of the year, Nampak Plastics (Newport Pagnell / UK; www.eu.plastics.nampak.com) said all HDPE milk bottles it produced this year would include up to 10% recycled material, saving the company about 7,000 t of virgin polymer– see Plasteurope.com of 21.01.2010.

Based on the positive results achieved to date, the taskforce group has reviewed its 2015 and 2020 targets to ensure they are sufficiently relevant and challenging to enable the sector to improve its overall environmental footprint. Currently, milk and dairy products account for less than 3% of greenhouse gas emissions in England.