‘Milk’ back on the doorstep

I wonder how many times during this past year I just had to go to the shop because our household had run out of ‘milk’? 

Feeling overwhelmed by the number of Tetrapaks piling up in our recycling bin every week I searched again for a company that would deliver plant based milk to our door. 

Success at last! It is now possible to get a delivery of UK dairy milk, organic milk and oat milk in Lincolnshire.

There is a useful website for finding a company that can deliver to you here: Find Me a Milk Delivery

Dairy milk & plant based milk

A large proportion of households are now multi-’milk’ consumers with members of the same household preferring to use different types of ‘milk’. 

This delivery service could help households avoid unnecessary emergency trips to the shop as well as enabling them to easily do more towards protecting our environment.

The cost of the products delivered to your door is significantly higher than purchasing from a shop, so we imagine that will be a debate for every household.

Shrinking the carbon footprint of milk

Most companies delivering milk in glass bottles offer a ‘rinse and return’ policy. The re-use of glass bottles reduces the carbon footprint of the product.

Milk processing plants have improved bottle cleaning facilities which means that each bottle will be re-used more than 20 times.

We have not yet found any major food stores stocking milk or plant based milk in glass bottles which you can then return for re-use.

“Around 3% of the UK’s fresh milk is delivered directly to the doorstep by milkmen and women.*”

Dairy UK *This figure is for dairy milk alone.

It is true that the dairy industry is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels for delivery.  In spite of this, purchasing milk in plastic or tetra paks from a store can be more damaging to the environment.

The recycling of Tetra Paks is difficult due to layers of plastic and aluminium in the packaging, although packaging designers are striving to produce a carbon neutral version of this ever popular container.

HDPE containers used to distribute the largest proportion of dairy milk in the UK are easily recycled if they get into the recycling chain and do not end up in landfill.  An HDPE bottle can take up to 100 years to degrade.

Plastic Free

Interested in reducing singe use plastic? There’s plenty happening in Lincolnshire: look up your nearest Plastic Free group, connect with others in your area, and make the Plastic Free pledge: plasticfree.org.uk

Ticky Nadal, March 2021

Where else can I buy milk in returnable bottles?

The Open Food Network in Lincolnshire

The Open Food Network is a great way of buying local food, and connecting with farmers and food producers. If there isn’t yet a shop or food hub near where you live, watch this space because more producers are joining in Lincolnshire, and we’re working on developing networks and food hubs.

Tell us about plastic free milk, Lincolnshire doorstep delivery, and food news that we should know about! – Laura@lincolnshirefoodpartnership.org

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