Cardboard bottles

A British inventor has come up with a way to prevent thousands of tons of plastic milk bottles from being dumped in landfills each year.

Martin Myerscough of the English town of Framlingham, has developed a recyclable cardboard bottle with a biodegradable bag inside to hold the milk, Britain's Independent newspaper reported.

Known as the Greenbottle, Myerscough said he came up with the idea for his invention while talking to an employee of a local waste dump a year ago. His background in mechanical engineering helped him design a milk container, which is being tested in a local grocery store.

Meyerscough's Greenbottle of milk is currently being sold for the same price as milk in plastic but it costs about 30 percent more to produce, the Independent said. He said the price differential will be less once production steps up.

More than 100,000 tons of plastic milk containers are dumped in British landfills each year, the newspaper said.

Martin Myerscough, the inventor of the bottles, said today that the firm had already received 40 positive comments from consumers, and in the last two days the "bottles have sold out in an hour and a half".

Explaining how the packaging works, Mr Myserscough told letsrecycle.com: "The biodegradable bag acts a barrier for the milk, and when you are finished with the carton you tear the bag out and put it in the general rubbish. The cardboard can go in with paper collections, in with garden waste or ideally it can be home composted."

Mr Myerscough also said that the company is also looking at the possibilities of creating packaging for smoothies and fruit shakes. If used for these products, the inner plastic film would have to be adapted, since it would not be suitable for containing the more acidic fruit products.

Marybell Dairy, which has been providing the milk for the Asda Lowestoft trials, also supply milk to companies including Co-op. The company is looking to adopt the new packaging across their ranges.