The UK has been taking some aggressive steps to reduce their solid waste production. One market where they have come up with some innovative solutions is Milk. Rather than the traditional carton or jug, there are several more sustainable milk containers on the shelves of UK stores…
At Daylesford Organic they sell pasteurized and unhomogenised organic milk in these cool biodegradable containers. They are made from calcium carbonate with a binding agent that breaks down into water, CO2, and chalk. This elegant design eliminates the flow of nasty plastics into our landfills. Fittingly their motto is “Caring for our health means caring for our earth. The two are co-dependent and indivisible.”
Calon Wen has another interesting solution for packaging their organic milk. Their Eco Pak milk comes in recyclable LDPE bags that you put into a reusable milk jug. You simply put the whole bag in the jug, and cut the corner for easy pouring. When it’s empty, you recycle the bag and put another one in the jug. You can watch a short little video on their site.
Green Bottle is another two step approach. The outer container is made from 90% recycled paper and can be ruesed. It pops open and you put a LDPE bag with a built in spout inside. Once the outer conainer wares out it can be recycled or if it ends up in a land fill, it will easily biodegrade. The result is something that looks like a traditional half gallon milk jug but creates 91% of the waste.
Unfortunately for America, these products are not available here so we’ll have to stick to recycling or coming up with creative ways to upcycle our jugs.
mmmmmmMMMMOOOOOOO!!!!
The reusable jugs isn’t new… That’s what we have been using for years - maybe generation? Here, in Québec. We then reuse the bag as sandwich bag or equivalent. Also, we got the carton jug since a really long time - really useful for crafting. Lots of memories with those (particularly bird house).
I get my dairy products from Strauss Dairy in Marin County CA., which washes and reuses their bottles and practices solid sustainable farming. Recently and unfortunately, they have added plastic bottles as a service option to increase their market share and appeal to larger supermarkets. I will forward this article to them, although I suspect they are aware of this type of bottle but can’t use it for some reason..
You know, it’s odd. Just the other day, I was thinking “we should stop producing milk cartons altogether and just clean out all of the ones we have.”
It’s amazing
thats it, dude
That is pretty good but you only gave the Chemical Composition for on of the products.
Are they all the same?
You should specify more on all of the products.
Here is a link to help you do so
http://www.amsteeman.com/?tag=biodegradability
That is pretty good but you only gave the Chemical Composition for one of the products.
Are they all the same?
You should specify more on all of the products.
Here is a link to help you do so
http://www.amsteeman.com/?tag=biodegradability
So strange you posted about these companies, because we just relocated to London 3 months ago and I recently discovered Daylesford Organics and buy many of their products because they come in glass with metal lids. We don’t drink cow’s milk though, but how awesome are they?! Thanks for spreading the word. Maybe it will catch on in the States. Why can’t we go back to glass bottle delivery, like when I was a kid?