Plastic milk bottles could soon disappear from supermarket shelves with the launch today of a sustainable alternative.

Locally-sourced milk in the new Greenbottle, made of recycled cardboard, is on sale at Asda in Lowestoft, Suffolk.

It is the same price as ordinary plastic bottles and is available in regular two-litre sizes.

Designed by Greenbottle, of Framlingham, Suffolk, the bottles are being trialled by Asda with the potential for a national roll-out later in the year.

Once the milk has been consumed the cardboard bottle can be recycled along with newspapers and magazines.

A bag holding the milk inside the Greenbottle is biodegradable and can be discarded with other household rubbish.

Greenbottle's designer, Martin Myerscough, said: "The new design ensures that the packaging protects the milk and yet can easily be recycled, easing the pressure on landfill."

Chris Brown, Asda's head of sourcing, said: "Greenbottle delivers a win-win for supermarkets and consumers alike in our collective effort to reduce the UK's environmental footprint."

Meanwhile, from today, free plastic bags will disappear from a Waitrose store for a fortnight.

Customers at the Waitrose outlet in Saffron Walden, Essex, will instead be asked to reuse old carriers and shopping bags.

The chain will introduce one plastic bag-free "green till" at another 14 of its 183 branches for the same period.

Waitrose head of social responsibility Nick Monger Godfrey said: "How customers react will help us determine pragmatic and realistic ways of making our business even greener."