Shoppers in Oxfordshire are being asked to try new plastic pouches that could replace the traditional milk bottle.

Supermarkets in Heyford Hill, Kidlington, Banbury and Witney are stocking up with the environmentally friendly containers.

Steve Twomey, duty manager at Sainsbury's store in Heyford Hill, Oxford, is pictured with one of the pouches.

Dairy Crest is running an eight-week pilot scheme that copies Canadian, Indian and Swiss dairies, which sell milk in clear plastic bags.

Market researchers will be out in force towards the end of the trial to discover what Oxfordshire's milk drinkers think of the pouches, which cost 2p less to produce than a two-pint plastic bottle.

But Dairy Crest spokesman Peter Burning said: "This is not the end of the milk bottle as we know it. If pouches are introduced permanently, they will be used alongside the more traditional packaging."