Why it's different

Plastic Bottles

Ninety percent of the milk containers sold in the UK are made from HDPE (High Density Polyethylene), which is made from oil. Rising oil prices are increasing plastic bottle costs significantly. The main problems with plastic bottles are:

• They are made from oil - a nonrenewable source.
• Most are not recycled and go to landfill where they take up to 500 years to decompose (Source: Recycling Guide).
• Much of the recycled product is shipped abroad to be reused.
• Recycling can be expensive because of sorting problems - there are up to 10 different recycling codes for plastics. (Source: Waste Online).

In December 2006 Marks and Spencer trialed a plastic bottle made from 30% recycled content. Whilst this is a step in the right direction it does little to address the ultimate landfill issues. There is also a limit on the amount of recycled material from post consumer waste that can be used to make a plastic bottle.

Laminated Cardboard Packs

Although little used in the milk industry in the UK the laminated cardboard packs are common in the juice sector. The problems in terms of green credentials are as follows:

• Many contain aluminium in the barrier layer which makes recycling complex.
• They cannot be put in the main cardboard recycling stream which therefore requires bespoke recycling facilities and there are none in the UK at the moment. All recyclable packs are shipped abroad for recycling.
• In landfill they take a very long time to decompose because of the plastic inner and outer layer.

Bio-plastics

For several years, suppliers have been producing "bioplastics" such as Polylactic acid (PLA), a starch made from corn and other high starch plants and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) using sugars, plants oils and biowaste. The main problems with these technologies are:

• They are too expensive - at the moment the raw material is about 4 times the cost of plastic. This has been a significant limit on their adoption.
• They can be slow to decompose at landfill and give off methane when they decompose which is a safety issue.
• They cannot be recycled but consumers are understandably confused and so are putting them in the plastic recycling (causing contamination) or in the green waste again causing problems because they cannot decompose fast enough for the green waste stream.

Despite being available for a number of years this technology has made little impact in the plastics industry.