NEARLY every milk container in the UK could soon contain recycled material produced by a innovative North-East company that has received national recognition.

Already in 2009 Greenstar WES at the Wilton International site near Redcar, east Cleveland, has won the contract to supply plastic flakes used to make Marks & Spencer’s environmentally-friendly milk containers and won a Queen’s Award for Innovation.

The company, employing 70 people, believes it is the first to develop the technology to convert plastic milk bottles from consumers’ bins into food-grade plastic.

And it is now working on contracts which could see the countries major dairies using its recycled flakes in their containers, giving the company a presence in virtually every supermarket milk section.

Just as impressively it is not far from perfecting a system which could see a milk container used, binned, recycled and back on the shelf again within three weeks.

Greenstar WES founder and managing director James Donaldson said: “We are now pushing more into a lot of the supermarkets.

“Marks and Spencer is a prestigious contract but is a relatively small milk supplier.”

The company is now increasing its supply to the company making containers for major milk producer Dairy Crest and is being appraised by another leading dairy.

Mr Donaldson said: “I am hoping that in the next three months nearly every milk bottle should have some of our material in it.”

The company’s flakes are also appearing on shelves in food containers such as poultry trays and mushroom pallets.

Majority-owned by Greenstar UK, Greenstar WES receives up to 2,000 tonnes of baled plastics each month, much of it from domestic collections processed at Greenstar’s materials recycling facilities.

And it is this “cradle to grave” system which could see a recycling turnaround in a matter of weeks.

Mr Donaldson said: “We can take waste out of people’s bins all the way through sorting and all the way back to a bottle.

“When we are running flat out we can see that happening in three to four weeks.”

And with sustainability a key issue Mr Donaldson could only see the company going from strength to strength, despite reports that a world in the grip of a recession was less concerned about its carbon footprint.

He added: “We have seen some decline because people are concerned about the costs, but good recycling should reduce costs not increase them.”

During the past few months, Greenstar WES has supplied nearly 500 tonnes of food grade recycled plastic to packaging manufacturers such as Nampak, Sharp Interpack and Linpac Packaging, and estimates it will supply 8,000 tonnes this year.

Although companies such as M&S already used recycled plastic, it previously had to undergo treatment at several sites across Europe, whereas the Wilton plant is the first to do it in one place.

The system has undergone a rigorous testing process, involving both UK and European standards institutes, to ensure absolute food safety for the product.

M&S’s organic milk bottles are made with ten per cent recycled food grade plastic, known as r- HDPE. The r-HDPE flakes are converted into plastic bottles by packaging manufacturer Nampak and filled with M&S’ organic milk range by Dairy Crest.

Mr Donaldson added: “We installed the equipment last April but have been going through test after test and gaining accreditation. It is a slow process but we have satisfied everyone who has come to see us.”

The first food grade plastic to be sold commercially was produced for supermarket food trays last August, and the company recently won a major contract to supply a cosmetics company.

The company, which spent £4m developing the equipment, will eventually supply Nampak with 6,000 tonnes of r-HDPE every year, using it for making plastic milk bottles with up to 30 per cent recycled content.