Roadmap aims to turn milk green

Half of all milk packaging will be made from recycled materials by 2020, under a Government target announced on Friday.


The goal was part of the Milk Roadmap launched by Defra and the UK dairy industry containing short, medium and long term actions to improve the environmental performance of the dairy sector.

Dairy producers have also committed to reducing the greenhouse gas balance from dairy farmers by 20-30% by 2020 from 1990 levels.

Other goals include enhancing ecosystems, improving animal welfare and cutting emissions from soil and fertiliser.

Food and Farming Minister Jeff Rooker said: “The dairy industry has acted responsibly in the past to cut its environmental impact, and this Roadmap provides a major new tool to achieve that.

“Delivering on the targets contained in the document will be a significant achievement.”

Dairy UK director general Jim Begg said the Roadmap set an example to other sectors and the rest of the world.

“Dairy companies seized the challenge of the Roadmap project from the start and have produced a series of very ambitious environmental targets for the sector,” he said.

Nampak Plastics Europe, which makes plastic milk bottles, said it believed the recycling target could be met.

James Crick, business development director, said: “We are pleased to have been involved in the Milk Roadmap’s development and the targets set for the use of recycled content in packaging are ambitious.

“However, Nampak is confident that it is in a good position to meet these targets.”

Parties in the dairy industry will carry out their own monitoring to assess whether the sector is meeting the targets.

Kate Martin

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