Milk bottles made in East Lancashire used as petrol bombs for police riot training (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Milk bottles made in East Lancashire used as petrol bombs for police riot training

1:00pm Wednesday 20th February 2013 in News

MD Jayne Shaw with some of the bottles that will be sent for police riot training

MILK bottles from East Lancashire are doing sterling work to educate the country’s riot squads – in the form of makeshift petrol bombs.

Around 50,000 pintas a year find their way from a factory in Simonstone to the Metropolitan Police’s specialist training centre in Gravesend, Kent.

For almost 30 years Seaway Services have been supplying printed milk bottles, and glassware, to the likes of the dairy and catering industries.

But bosses at the Blackburn Road firm admit their contract with the Met was one of their more unusual deals.

The force’s territorial support group, which saw action during the London riots, undergoes public disorder training at the Kent centre, one of the largest in Europe.

Steve Smith, who runs sess- ions at the centre, said: “We use milk bottles pretty much on a daily basis, creating petrol bombs to make riot training more realistic.

“We throw them around the site to train officers to react to real-life situations of that nature.

“We order 30,000 to 50,000 a year from Seaways and they provide a brilliant service.”

Recycled glass bottles form the main bulk of the contract, but plain glass bottles are also employed.

Jayne Shaw, Seaways’ managing director, said: “We’ve developed a great relationship with the centre over the years and it’s always fantastic for us to find new areas of demand for the traditional milk bottle, especially as super-markets continue to drive doorstep milk deliveries into decline.

“We always recycle scrap and waste products, but it’s great to find another use for bottles that benefits the community too.”