By Haley Bouma

A dairy firm has seen a huge surge in demand for glass milk bottles as more people try to reduce their plastic waste.

Over the past year, Kerr's Dairy in Tayside has seen sales for glass bottles triple.

Bosses reckon the soar in demand is due to a rise in documentaries and news reports on the effects plastic has on the environment.

Director of Kerr's Family Dairy, Kelvin Kerr said: "Attitudes have changed in the way people use plastic.

"I think it's because there's a lot of stuff on TV about how plastic can damage the environment.

"Milk is a household need so by switching your plastic to glass it's a good way to start helping the environment."

Kerr's Dairy has seen the uptake in glass soar over the last year.

Kelvin added: "Even if we just look at the last two weeks our sales for glass bottles have gone up by 700 bottles this week alone.

"Over the last year our sales for glass bottles have tripled."

Once finished glass milk bottles are returned to the dairy, they are washed out and refilled to be delivered again.

This stops hundreds of plastic bottles being used which only have a single life-span.

Environmental officer for St Andrews University Alexander Clark said: "Ideas like this are a great initiative.

"Instead of using a single use item which gets recycled it's better to have an item that can be re-used, washed out and returned to the customer.

"Recycling is good but we need to move towards reusing items like glass can provide an alternative for that as long as the infrastructure is in place."

It's not just homes that are making the changes; local companies are also getting on board to do their part for the environment.

Accountants Henderson and Loggie Dundee have recently joined forces with Kerr's Dairy to switch all their plastic milk bottles to glass.

Manager Debbie Gallacher said: "We were using the pint plastic bottles but by switching to galss we worked out that we will save 3000 bottles every year.

"Everybody seems really keen and some people are even swapping their own home deliveries so it's having a positive impact at homes as well as at work."