Berry Global teams up with Abel & Cole to introduce refillable milk bottles

UK – Sustainable packaging company Berry Global has partnered with Abel & Cole to launch refillable bottles for its Club Zero Refillable Milk delivery service.

Made from recyclable polypropylene (PP), these bottles can be reused up to 16 times before recycling.

As revealed by Abel & Cole’s research, the new bottles are designed to be lighter than glass and help lower transport and greenhouse gas emissions. Using the Club Zero bottles just four times halves the carbon footprint compared to single-use milk bottles.

This efficiency surpasses glass bottles, which must be reused more than 15 times to achieve similar emissions savings.

This initiative is expected to prevent approximately 450,000 single-use plastic milk bottles, or 23 tonnes of plastic, from ending up in landfills or being incinerated annually.

The bottles are tailored to Abel & Cole’s cleaning process, omitting the drying stage to reduce contamination risks. Their design excludes a handle, facilitating better cleaning and easy drainage, thus minimizing bacterial ‘trap points’.

The bottles are compatible with Abel & Cole’s factory equipment, including its low-density polyethylene caps and single-use milk crates, avoiding additional investment costs.

Berry conducted extensive chemical testing to ensure the PP bottles’ durability and ability to withstand high processing temperatures without the breakage issues associated with glass.

The bottle labels serve as an ‘early warning’ system, indicating when a bottle is due for recycling after multiple washes.

The first 3D-printed samples for migration testing were produced in June 2023, and the bottles were shipped to customers by October of that year.

Since the launch, the Club Zero one-litre refillable milk bottle has experienced a 20% weekly sales increase. Abel & Cole reports a 64% return rate and aims for at least 75%.