The humble milk bottle is causing a huge recycling headache but one south-west factory is lifting the lid on the issue.
Cobden Fonterra has changed the colour of its Woolworths-branded milk bottle lids to clear, a small move which could help save up to 290,000 kilos of plastic company-wide.
Fonterra Australia sustainability packaging manager Jenny Phillips said many people didn't realise colour needed to be ejected from the lid in order to be recycled, a process which reduced the amount of plastic that could be saved.
"It's a small change with colossal consequences," she said.
"Clear plastic leads to greater material recovery and better quality recyclate (recycled material) allowing the lids to be turned back into either clear or coloured plastic, which means it can be used to make a new milk bottle."
The sustainability packaging manager added: "By changing the lids for the milk we produce at Cobden we're making it easier for consumers in Victoria to contribute to a more sustainable and circular economy.
"Streamlining production from a palette of five different coloured lids to a single clear lid also helps reduce waste during the production changeover process at our Cobden site."
Beverages production manager Caitlin Rand added the change was nearly seamless.
"It was quite an easy, straightforward change for us," she said.
"Production-wise we're a fairly agile plant. Woolworths and Fonterra worked together on this project and the turnaround time from idea to first product out the door was roughly 10 weeks."
Fonterra is the first of Woolworths' milk partners to implement the change. The new lids are expected to roll out across all stores in the new year.
