British man invents new milk container

A British inventor has come up with a way to prevent thousands of tons of plastic milk bottles from being dumped in landfills each year.

Martin Myerscough of the English town of Framlingham, has developed a recyclable cardboard bottle with a biodegradable bag inside to hold the milk, Britain's Independent newspaper reported.

Known as the Greenbottle, Myerscough said he came up with the idea for his invention while talking to an employee of a local waste dump a year ago. His background in mechanical engineering helped him design a milk container, which is being tested in a local grocery store.

Meyerscough's Greenbottle of milk is currently being sold for the same price as milk in plastic but it costs about 30 percent more to produce, the Independent said. He said the price differential will be less once production steps up.

More than 100,000 tons of plastic milk containers are dumped in British landfills each year, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International