Changes to milk bottle design would be detrimental for elderly

The company carried out a study to understand how removing the handle from a milk bottle could be received by the older population, who are more prone to manual dexterity impairment and visual impairment.

The research used an existing plastic milk bottle and prototype designs without a handle for a two-week home trial.

The trials found that with the larger two pint bottle, there was increased resistance for a bottle without a handle, this is significant given that the retired age bracket accounts for 32% of the volume of two pint bottles purchased in the UK.

James Crick, business development director at Nampak, said: “With the packaging industry striving to improve the environmental credentials of packaging, there is a danger that the directions some packaging designs are taking could in fact render them unfit for purpose for important consumer users.

“The focus to date has been too heavily geared towards reducing the weight of packaging. However, as this research has clearly demonstrated, the small weight reductions gained by removing the handle would clearly alienate not just an important sector of the market, but a growing sector of the market given the population’s longer life expectancy,” he added.

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