Op-ed: Why I’ve returned to glass bottles and milk deliveries

Glass milk bottles. Image by Tim Sandle

There are various ways we can all help address the environmental issues facing the planet. It is true that to have a major impact governments need to legislate for renewables and place restrictions on emissions. It may also be that our understanding of ’growth’ needs to change. Major corporations also need to put in place sustainable initiatives and given the direction of most of the corporate world, this will not be possible without integrated and intentional regulation.

However, there are things that each person can consider, each according to their means. Those of us living in high-income countries have more options than people dealing with economic hardship, war and a frequent likelihood of natural disasters.

Cynics may say that recycling or opting for renewable energy sources makes little different in the face of industrial pollution or the massive contribution to pollution that enters the air, land and waters from China.

However, if we all adopted that position then little social change would have ever taken place. From Wat Tyler’s Great Rising of the 1340s to Greta Thunberg’s 2018 school strike.

Personally, I recycle each week, dividing up carboard and plastics. It was shifting through plastics one week to see what the composition of different containers was in relation to their recycling potential, that I stopped and thought about milk.

Goodbye to plastic milk bottles. Image by Tim Sandle

In the U.K., for a couple of decades, milk has been mostly purchased from stores in plastic containers. Milk packaging is generally composed of high density polyethylene; low density polyethylene and polyester. Around 75 percent of the container can be recycled, although this is an energy intensive process. This is the U.K.; elsewhere, none of the milk packaging in the U.S. is made from recycled materials due to concerns about bacterial and chemical contamination

I realized recently that milk deliveries had resumed in my area, after at a least a decade absence. This provided the option to have milk delivered by electric vehicles in glass bottles. Here the glass bottle is 100 percent recyclable.

Milk and More packaging

The company in my local area is Milk and More. As well as an environmental commitment they boost the local economy by championing smaller, local suppliers. Suppliers are required to practice responsible farming and eco-friendly production as per the European standard EN 14001 (“Environmental Management”).

Also with glass, when a bottle is returned, far less energy is required to sterilize and refill a glass bottle then there is to make a new dairy packaging.

Glass milk bottles. Image by Tim Sandle

Another advantage is that the milk tastes better. Glass bottles do not transfer a foreign scent and taste into the milk, the way paper or plastic containers do.

So, that’s my latest environmental initiative. Cynics may well say ‘what difference does it make?’, but championing change requires practicing beliefs are well as well as propagating ideas.

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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.