Arla’s two pint polybottles are the lightest in the industry

Arla is adding weight to its environmental credentials by slimming down its use of packaging and now boasts the lightest two pint polybottles for milk in the UK.

The industry average for a two pint polybottle is 27 grammes but Arla has succeeded in shaving two grammes off bottles blown at its dairy in Stourton, Leeds, without compromising the integrity and functionality of the bottle.

Good progress has been made on six pint bottles at Stourton dairy, these are now four grammes lighter than the 70 gramme industry average while bottles at Arla’s Ashby dairy weigh in even less at 65 grammes.

And it isn’t only bottles which have been Arla’s packaging team’s focus. Caps, which used to weigh 2.3 grammes, now tip the scales at two grammes, saving 180 tonnes of plastic a year.

Arla’s light-weighing project began in 2006 in line with the company’s global ambition of reducing its carbon impact by 25 per cent by 2020. In addition, Arla’s initiative supports the UK’s major retailers in their pursuit of reduced carbon footprints. In the last three years Arla has used 983 tonnes less plastic and is on track to save a further 150 tonnes in 2009.

Richard Taplin, packaging manager, said: “This has been a significant project on which we have worked closely with our packaging suppliers.

“The project supports Arla’s Closer to Nature environmental ambitions in which Arla aims to have the least environmental impact possible. This is why we are continuing to pursue light-weighting opportunities across all our packaging and have a further 150-tonne reduction in our sights for 2010,” Richard added.

Arla Foods UK plc is home to some of the UK’s leading dairy brands including Cravendale, Lurpak and Anchor. Processing approximately two billion litres of milk a year Arla continues to be one of the UK’s leading dairy companies and a supplier of fresh liquid milk and cream to the top seven retailers.

Over 2,500 daily deliveries are made directly to stores nationwide and Arla brands can be found across the dairy category. As well as the leader of the butter, spreads and margarine sector, and a major supplier of other added value products including flavoured milk and cheese, Arla continues to build working relationships with Arla Foods Milk Partnership, a unique group of dairy farmers, which supplies around 90 per cent of Arla's total milk requirements.

Behind this leading business is a team of circa 2,800 people across the UK located at our dairies, distribution centres and head office.