Resource management company Veolia has joined forces with convenience retail chain One Stop on a milk bottle recycling initiative.

The partnership aims to recycle more than 380,000 milk bottles a year from the retailer’s stores.

Milk bottles deposited in stores’ vending machines alongside staff refreshments will be taken for recycling from One Stop’s distribution centres to Veolia’s Dagenham Plastic Facility every week.

The bottles will then be washed, shredded, and formed into pellets so that they can be blown back into milk bottles.

Veolia's commercial business development director Simon Futcher said: “Veolia is delighted to be working closely with One Stop to recycle their milk bottles, ensuring we reduce their carbon impact on the environment.

“This partnership aligns with Veolia’s purpose of ecological transformation and demonstrates a closed-loop recycling solution. Turning used milk bottles into fresh ones replaces the need for raw materials and saves 67% of carbon emissions at the same time.”

One Stop initiated the recycling partnership with Veolia following a successful trial of the programme earlier this year.

The convenience retailer has also switched to clear recyclable lids from its previously green and hard-to-recycle bottle tops on its semi-skimmed milk product.

One Stop's sustainability manager Amriene Kalsi said: “We’re so pleased to be working with Veolia and Müller on this new initiative. It’s certainly another key step towards our goal of increasing recycling within our own operations, contributing to our target of meeting net zero by 2050.”

In April this year, Veolia partnered with UK-based luxury department store Harrods to recycle its low-density polyethylene plastic shopping bags into 'plastic lumber'.