Müller Rolls Out ‘Stealth’ Milk Caps
Müller, Britain’s leading producer of branded and private label fresh milk, cream, butter and ingredients, is rolling out a new lightweight recyclable milk cap, which uses 13% less plastic material. The innovative solution allows the business to remove 300 tonnes of plastic every year, the equivalent weight of 231 million ‘stealth’ milk caps.
The dairy company has worked with PACCOR for the last 18 months to design, trial and rollout the new compression mould caps. Having successfully completed various trials across Müller’s network of state-of-the-art dairies throughout 2018, all of Müller’s branded and private label fresh milk products will include the new lighter cap, which weighs just 1.3g, from February 2019.
As Müller continues to drive down its plastic use, the dairy company has already completed various multi-million pound acquisitions throughout the UK that allows the business to manufacture its own fresh milk bottles in the UK.
Müller’s HDPE fresh milk bottles, used for all branded and private label fresh milk products, are already 100% recyclable and the business is aiming to increase the use of recycled plastic in its bottles to a target of 50% by 2020. Alongside working with suppliers like PACCOR, Müller is using the newly acquired assets to continue pursuing innovative packaging solutions, working in partnership with its customers.
While the industry debates the future sustainability of the fresh milk processing sector, the new caps form part of Müller’s overall plan to create a profitable, progressive and efficient fresh milk business in Britain, with new capabilities to make the next generation of fresh milk, cream and flavoured milk products.
Patrick Müller, CEO of Müller Milk & Ingredients, says: “We’re clear about the need to reduce our use of plastic, and we have removed 10,000 tonnes of plastic from our milk bottles since 2016. This is great progress, but we can, and we will do more. Customers and consumers can be assured that Müller is working to lead in this and other important areas. We are convinced that the work we do with our packaging, operational excellence and with dairy farmers who supply us to protect against market volatility, are real points of difference.”
