Highland Spring has launched what it claims is the first 100% recycled plastic bottle on sale in the UK.

The bottle, which will be a permanent part of the company’s UK products range, will be slightly cloudier than standard versions.

They are also more expensive to manufacture, which may add around 5p to the total cost when they are sent out into stores across the country this month.

Efforts to use more recycled plastic are likely to be reliant on planned deposit schemes to ensure a ready supply of usable material is available.

An alliance of businesses from the plastics and consumer goods value chain has committed more than $1 billion (£775m) to tackle the problem of plastic waste.