Redesigned Ribena bottles will soon be hitting the shelves as the brand's Glocuestershire-based manufacturer continues its move to eradicate single-use plastics.

Lucozade Ribena Suntory are intensifying its existing sustainability programme by announcing that there will be new look for the iconic 500ml Ribena bottles.

Industrial design agency Seymour Powell have been appointed to lead the redesign after an in-depth pitch process in 2018.

The move to redesign the bottles comes as part of the Coleford-based company's pledge to ensure 100 per cent of its plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

Michelle Norman, director of external affairs and sustainability at LRS said: "Lucozade Ribena Suntory takes its sustainability commitments very seriously.

"We are extremely proud to be announcing this packaging redesign to ensure our brands continue to be as sustainable as possible.

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"While we continue to make positive changes to our brands it is important that wider changes are made by companies like us, government and industry to ensure recycling rates in the UK can continue to increase."

This is the company's latest move to ensure all its packaging is fully recyclable within the UK's current recycling infrastructure.

A decade ago, Ribena became the first UK soft drink brand to use bottles made from 100 per cent recycled plastic, a move that has prevented 40,000 tonnes of additional plastic from being used.

Earlier this year further advances were made to make the bottles lighter-weighted, a move that removes a further 325 tonnes of plastic from production per year.

A key part of the latest redesign will be the reduction of the full printed sleeves that cover some bottles to allow them to be identified by automated sorting machines and be recycled.

Lucozade Ribena Suntory has already taken positive steps to ensure its new drinks, like Lucozade Sport Fitwater and Ribena Frusion, are designed with bottle-to-bottle recycling in mind.

Those products already have sufficiently transparent labels, meaning they can be fully recycled within the current UK recycling infrastructure.

The company have also made several large investments in its Royal Forest Factory in Coleford to ensure the manufacturing process is as sustainable as possible.

In 2010 it invested £70 million to bring bottle production in house to in order to reduce its carbon foot print.

A further £13million recent investment has seen Suntory Beverage and Food install a new filler that will reduce the water and energy used to produce a filled bottle by 40 per cent.

While Lucozade Ribena Suntory continues to take proactive steps forward, it is calling for additional action from government and industry to ensure the UK can become a leader in sustainability.

They believe consumers should be helped to change their relationship with plastic, to view it as a resource and recycle it.

Crucially, more must be done to improve the UK's existing recycling infrastructure to ensure that recyclable products can be recycled.

Additionally, Lucozade Ribena Suntory is supporting the principle of a well-designed UK-wide Deposit Return Scheme that encourages and increases recycling rates.