Am sure that many of us have experienced a mild irritation when a local shop/store has changed their layout a bit.
But what about labelling products?
Milk, as far as I can recall, comes in bottles with red, green and blue screwtops depending on whether it’s skimmed, semi or full fat.
So why has Tesco changed the semi to a white top?
Have you seen any totally unnecessary change of packaging design lately?
(I suspect this may be one of those threads that bombs, but one never knows, eh)
I’ve mainly noticed that the packages are getting smaller but cost slightly more.
I haven’t seen the white top semi skimmed change at Tesco. I’m pretty sure I bought some green top from there recently. Perhaps it’s cheaper to avoid colour in the plastic? Or shortages of dye?
I’ve noticed some well known brands are changing composition of their inputs slightly. For example Neal’s yard calendula cleanser now has slightly less calendula and slightly more of another ingredient. I’m assuming a combination of scarcity and cost. It’s difficult for consumers to notice these changes unless you have an old product to compare with.
Another one that changes from time to time…crisp packet colours (especially cheese and onion!!)
The White milk bottle tops , I questioned why at the Co.Op when i bought it on Friday , The Store assistant didnt know , and so getting home my son looked it up and its to do with Recycling , It can not be recycled if its White top .
I thought that all coloured (nylon) bottle tops couldn’t be recycled anyway.
I believe the Green tops were made recycable…
It doesn’t usually bother me if manufacturers change their packaging.
But… the white milk bottle top on milk. Waitrose 4 pint full fat milk has had a white top, for a while now.
I don’t like it as it makes the milk bottle look like it has no top on it !
I now keep a blue top to put on it instead! I am not sure why the ‘white top’ affects me so!!
I suppose, in trying to cut down on the use of plastic, most of the supermarket cartons of cream no longer have a plastic cap.
Again, l have had to keep a few caps l’ve had previously to keep the cream airtight and prevent spillage in the fridge.
Never knew that. Going to make a wild statement by suggesting that it’s probably likely that most people don’t make any effort to remove non recyclable bottle tops when they throw things into the appropriate (wheelie) bin, and assume someone somewhere down the line will sort it out.
Not to mention the amount of crisps they don’t have in them
Must be a mere fraction of a potato.
Yes, it’s because the coloured tops can’t be recycled and the white tops can
The coloured plastic bottle tops can be recycled but they cannot be recycled to use as food-grade packaging.
Waitrose and Muller first trialled using colourless milk bottle tops in April this year and have stopped using the coloured bottle tops - now all the major supermarkets are following their lead.
“ Coloured caps cannot currently be recycled into food-grade packaging.
Clear caps would enable the retention of the material for reuse within the food sector and reduce its reliance on virgin plastics, the businesses claimed.”
I don’t mind change if there is a good reason for it - and this sounds like a very good reason to me.
A little sign above the store fridge explaining all that would have been useful
I agree.
I think customers are more likely to accept change, and support it, if the reason for it is explained.
I bet they are saving the green colour for some exiting, best-thing-since-sliced-bread, new ‘milk’ product to save the planet. And keep the customer on the brink of destitution.
Off topic, but heck it’s my thread so cut me some slack,…I’ve never understood the “thing” where concert goers thrown bottle tops/caps at the acts for some reason. This has led to having to throw away one’s bottle tops as one enters the auditorium. Weird, eh?
Edit- given that most arena’s are effing huge and one would need a carrier pigeon for the cap to reach the stage, one wonders whether the rule is entirely necessary
We get our milk delivered to our door by our milkman. They are glass bottles and the milkman returns them for recycling.
We used to do that, and didn’t mind paying a bit extra to support a newish enterprise, but sadly they priced themselves out of the market.
You’ve obviously never read:
The Economics and Psychology of Bottle Top Colours
-the hidden agenda-
I actually just googled that for a laugh. Whaddya know, there’s a load of research into product packaging colours. Should’ve guessed there’d be.
When we had milk delivered in glass bottles, we used to wash and save the foil tops from the milk bottles plus any other bits of aluminium foil, such as KitKat foil wrappers.
When we had a bagful, we would deliver it to a neighbour who collected it for our neighbourhood, then she took it all to the local Association for the Blind - they used to sell it in bulk for recycling and use the funds towards training guide dogs.
I guess that was an early form of aluminium foil recycling.
