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Article by Ruth Lognonne - Waste Management World 19 March 2013

New dairy bottles will help the environment

ALONG established, family-run dairy, is doing its bit for the environment after introducing a completely recyclable bottle to package its milk.

Embleton Hall Dairies, in Wingate, County Durham, is launching the new two-litre infini HDPE recyclable milk bottle following extensive market research.

Designed by Nampak Plastics, one of the UK's leading plastic milk bottle manufacturers, infini is the innovative next-generation, eco-friendly bottle.

Infini has been designed to be light weighted by up to 25% across the range without compromising strength, resulting in an initial weight reduction of 13% on the standard two-litre bottle.

Paul Thompson, director of Embleton Hall Dairies said: "The design of milk poly bottles has remained unchanged since we started back in 1984, so we were very interested when Nampak approached us with a new design, in response to growing customer requests for a more environmentally friendly form of packaging.
"That it improves bottle strength and reduces leakage rates is a massive bonus, and the results are good for both our customers and the environment."

When placed in the door of a fridge the handle position makes it easier for the consumer to remove the infini bottle. The bottles are made of HDPE (High Density Polyethylene, [Status]) and recycled HDPE (rHDPE, [Status]).
Every infini bottle contains up to 15% rHDPE. This recycled content will increase further in the future with a target of up to 30% by 2015.

HDPE plastic milk bottles are 100% recyclable and the consumer can recycle the infini bottle in exactly the same way as a standard bottle.  There is also a carbon footprint saving over the standard bottle, resulting in approximately 75% of a research panel expressing their preference for the infini bottle.  The bottle achieved international industry recognition, picking up the top award in the Best Dairy Packaging Innovation category at the Dairy Innovation Awards 2012, in addition to the World Packaging Organisation 2013 World Star Award.
Carl Thorley of Nampak, who worked with Embleton, said infini is the result of a four-year journey that his colleagues undertook in order to reduce the weight and carbon footprint of the standard milk bottle, but without compromising on strength.

He said: "It is better by design and is playing an important role in helping the British dairy industry to meet its environmental targets and the support we have received from Embleton shows we are meeting the demands of the market."

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