You might notice a change in the fridge aisle at your local Lidl soon, as the supermarket giant has announced its set to follow the likes of Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Aldi.
Starting today, October 31, Lidl will swap out green-coloured caps on its semi-skimmed milk for clear ones.
Why? According to the budget supermarket, clear lids are easier to recycle - so shoppers will need to check the labels of the milk they are buying instead of looking for the tell-tale tops.
The change is expected to be complete across all of its UK stores by November 21.
Lidl has said that the move to clear milk tops, carried out in partnership with Müller after a trial in September, will allow 60 tonnes of recycled high-density polythene to be turned into food-grade packaging in the form of milk bottles.
Scott Davey, Lidl’s senior buying director, said: “We remain committed to supporting our customers in helping them make more sustainable shopping decisions on a daily basis. Customer feedback during the trial was overwhelmingly positive and we are thrilled to be making this change permanent across Lidl stores.
“In addition, this move will help us achieve our goal of making more of the plastic we use circular and fit to be repurposed time and time again.”
However, not everyone has been chuffed about the change.
During rival supermarket Waitrose’s change to clear tops, one person tweeted: ”@waitrose Hello, it’s only a little gripe in the grand scheme of things, but whose genius idea was it to replace the universally-adopted colour-coded milk bottle caps with plain white ones? A simple glance down the fridge normally, now requires removal of bottles to check.”