Germany-based discount supermarket chain Lidl is set to incorporate Prevented Ocean Plastic into its one-litre San Celestino Italian sparkling mineral water bottles.

The permanent change will come into effect across Lidl stores starting this July.

Lidl claimed that it will be the first supermarket chain to implement this change.

The discount retailer will now use a minimum of 30% Prevented Ocean Plastic in its water bottle packaging.

The retailer estimates that approximately 12 million plastic bottles are sold every year, and with its latest move it can save at least 100 tonnes (t) of plastic from entering into the world's oceans annually.

Made from discarded ocean-bound water bottles, Prevented Ocean Plastic packaging is supplied and developed in close coordination with Bantam Materials.

Lidl's head for Responsible Sourcing and Ethical Trade Shyam Unarket said: “Ocean plastic pollution is a pressing environmental concern; it is expected that by 2050 there could be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

“As pioneers of integrating ocean-bound plastic into our packaging in 2020, we have been consistently building and improving on our efforts since and are proud to now extend Prevented Ocean Plastic into water bottles.”

Lidl has also confirmed its plans to replace coloured caps on its milk bottles with clear ones.

The new clear cap range is being introduced in collaboration with dairy product suppliers Müller and Cornish Farm.

This transition will take place over the next two months.

Once implemented, the clear caps on these milk bottles will help support the industry-wide mission to retain 4000t of bottle top material that can be used again for new products’ packaging within the food sector.

Since 2020, the discount retailer has been working to transition the packaging of its own-brand products to a more sustainable alternative.

It is using Prevented Ocean Plastic for its fresh fish, sausage, breaded poultry and fresh fruit products.

In November last year, Lidl implemented a Prevented Ocean Plastic effort for its fresh meat packaging.

By making these packaging changes, Lidl said it has saved the equivalent of 15 million plastic water bottles from entering the ocean.