It is a case of 'Back to the Future' for Largs milkman Willie Brown as he finds that there has been a welcome surge in interest of glass milk bottles recently when doing his rounds.

Willie told the 'News' that the bottles have been something that he has always offered, and younger families in particular are now seeking to do more for the environment as we attempt to deal with our plastic problem. A fresh pint on the doorstep may sound like going back in time but it means dispensing with cartons.

Willie said: "It is one of these things that we are always trying to the right thing. If you drive along any of our coast you will see that rubbish is mounting, and we need to do something positive about it to help save the planet. We need to make the government listen, and look at ways of reducing plastic wherever possible.

"It is not just milk we offer, but fruit juice too in recycled glass bottles, so when you leave your milk bottles out in the morning for us to collect, you also leave your fruit juice bottles too.

"Glass bottles have been generally on the go since the 1960s - and they last for 30 or 40 journeys. It is something we have always done, and it is traditional, but because of the impact of litter, people are now going back to glass milk bottles."

Willie's company W&J Brown is also reducing its carbon footprint in a range of other ways with solar panels on their farm, and have planted 42,000 trees.

The company have plans to buy an electric car, and reduce paper invoices by moving on to email.

Willie, who took part in the Largs community beach clean on Sunday, added; "Going back to the glass bottles for many people is an obvious extension to helping the environment. It used to be common place, so partly it is our own fault as a nation. I remember sitting outside a shop in Millport recently and people were gobsmacked to see us delivering glass bottles. There has been a noticeable increase, and people are becoming much more aware of going the extra mile to help our environment thanks to tv programmes like David Attenborough's 'Blue Planet 2'."