Budget supermarket chain Aldi has announced the introduction of colourless caps for its milk products across all of its 990 stores in the UK.

Milk bottles with new colourless caps have already been seen across Aldi's stores this week.

The new caps are easier to recycle when compared to their predecessor and can be remade into a wider variety of items.

The launch of these colourless bottle tops also signifies that approximately 200 tonnes of high-density polyethylene used in the caps can now be reused for manufacturing new milk packaging.

In order to distinguish between different milk types, customers will need to read the coloured labels on the cartons themselves, all of which will continue to carry red, green, and blue colours to indicate skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole-fat milk.

Aldi Plastics and Packaging director Luke Emery said: “At Aldi we are constantly reviewing ways to become a more sustainable supermarket and cut down on single-use plastic. That means working closely with our suppliers to find solutions that will make a real difference.

“Improving the recyclability of packaging on an everyday product like milk has been well received by our customers, who are increasingly aware of products being environmentally friendly.”

The latest move is being carried out in partnership with several UK-based suppliers and builds on the successful completion of Aldi's initial trial, which commenced in August last year.

Apart from Aldi, other supermarket chains in the UK, including Asda and Lidl, have also announced similar efforts to improve the recyclability of their milk packaging.

Asda confirmed that it would replace the coloured caps on its fresh milk products with new clear caps starting this month.