Morrisons has become the first supermarket in the UK to announce a major change to the way it sells milk.

The supermarket chain has announced it will sell its own brand fresh milk in carbon neutral Tetra Oak cartons.

The move will save an initial 100 tonnes of plastic each year as nine lines move into Tetra Pak packaging.

The move follows Morrison’s decision to remove use by dates on its own brand milk earlier this year, urging customers to use the sniff test when deciding whether milk is safe to consume.

Tony Fearon, Dairy Category Director at Morrisons, said: “Fresh milk does not need to be in a plastic bottle. It keeps just as fresh in a carton. Fresh milk is the top user of plastic packaging in our stores, so this will result in significant plastic reduction.

“Tetra Pak has also been independently verified as a better sustainable packaging option. If customers take to it, we could be looking to move all of our fresh milk to Tetra Pak cartons in time.”

Hugh Jones, Managing Director of Advisory at the Carbon Trust, added: “We welcome this move by Morrisons towards reducing the environmental impact of its milk packaging.

“Our Carbon Trust ‘Carbon Neutral’ label, which will feature on these milk products in their new Tetra Pak packaging, recognises the CO2 reduction of this move and certifies that the cradle-to-grave carbon footprint of the packaging is in line with targets.”