Perhaps colours chosen to help those afflicted with colour blindness, just a thought. Dave W

I'm not sure it helps the colour blind. I'm Red/Green colour blind as are something like 20% of the male population. Many are the times I've ben told off by other half for getting Green not Red or vice versa. We now stick to just one version – Red. Which 9 times out of 10 I now get correct.

Colin

Just read on the internet that Waitrose are scrapping red and green lids on their milk containers because they can’t be recycled for food grade packaging, in future they will use clear plastic that can be recycled for food grade packaging, well we live and learn. Dave W

I've no idea where the current colour code originates, but it differs from the colours used on the foil caps on glass milk bottles which were set out in the Milk and Dairies (Milk Bottle Caps) (Colour) Regulations 1973

Brian G

Glass bottles were permitted to remain in pint measures (legally 568ml) because they were a pre-existing reusable container. Although I just said I had no idea about the current plastic bottle colour codes, I would guess that they were harmonised for the single market, whilst glass bottle foil remained with the 1973 colours.

Brian G

As for capacity, some shops sell the plastic milk containers in multiples of pints and some in litres. The imperial ones are bigger.

The plastic for the top is diferent from the bottle in plastic sets. If you can separate the coloured top from the bottle it can be recycled easily and there are machines at the recycling plant able to blow the coloured tops out with air blast. The plastic in the top has to be diferent to be able to stay on to the more flexible bottle plastic and there is a test of dropping a full bottle from a certain height to test the bottle lid couple. I was involved in the manufacture of the tooling for the lids and blow moulding of the bottles but quite a while ago now before I retired. There was a standard which said that the two parts should be easily separated for recycling but I can't remember if it was a supliers standard or EU etc.

David

Around East Anglia, the coloured tops are recycled separately, (By a different company in a different town, and even county! ) whereas the bottles go in the council recycling bin.

Howard

Howard same here for recycling in East Sussex. Dave W

I have always separated metal lids/caps from glass containers before recycling. We have four wheelie bins. brown for paper/cardboard, green for garden waste, blue for cans, glass and plastic and grey for anything else. Any food waste goes into a compost bin in the back garden. Presumably, the contents of the blue bin are relatively easy to separate.

l