whatever happened to milk bottles

[Andy Hamilton]

I remember hearing somewhere that the reason we don't have milk in glass bottles was due to a glass shortage in the 80's or something a bit hazy really. Bit daft as they can be used 20 times. Any one know why milk moved to plastic?

[Shirley]

Probably because it's cheaper and lighter.

I have just noticed a house around here that has the milk delivered in glass bottles so I'm going to investigate the source :)

[Stonehead]

I remember hearing somewhere that the reason we don't have milk in glass bottles was due to a glass shortage in the 80's or something a bit hazy really. Bit daft as they can be used 20 times. Any one know why milk moved to plastic?

Cartons and square plastic bottles are lighter than glass so a truck can carry more of them, plus they're square so you can pack them tighter and carry more/store more in the same amount of space.

Also, while glass bottles can be re-used, you need to have the plant and machinery to process them (washing, sterilising etc).

[Wormella]

until you can find some this thread made me look up ione of my favoruite sites on the internet

http://www.milkbottleoftheweek.com/

[2steps]

untill recently we had milk delivered in glass bottles.

[dibnah]

we get our milk from the milk man in glass bottles and the co-op around the corner sells milk in glass bottles although I admit I have not seen it anywhere else.

[Ranter]

Oh Dibnah
You're making me homesick for Lincs. It took me ages to get my head around the fact that there is no co-op dairy here.

[Merry]

We always used to get our milk delivered by the Co-op milkman. It would arrive at about four a.m. Then it started to get pinched nearly every day. Our doorstep is too near the pavement to do much about it so we cancelled and get it from the corner shop. Very sad though!

[Cheezy]

We're very lucky we get organic milk delivered in bottles twice a week (along with organic eggs and all sorts of other stuff like chicken and bread)

The best thing is that it's the local farm only 2 miles away. (Acorn dairy.co.uk) And every week with the bill we get a paragraph of whats happening on the farm,what the delivery men are upto etc. Keeps you in touch with the cows!.

Mind we have to hide the stuff round the corner since the milk man whose patch we're on tends to nick it in protest if he see's it.

[Merry]

Hey! Perhaps it was a rival milkman nicking ours!

[Ranter]

My front door is also onto the pavement, so I don't have milk delivered as it would get nicked round here. The local shop is just over the road, so I get milk there. But the milk isn't locally sourced. In a bit of a dilemma over this. Probably one of the few advantages of winter - I eat porridge, made with water, for breakfast - cuts my milk usage no end.

[Merry]

So do I! - I just like the taste of oats

[islanz]

The south island (NZ) only stopped having milk in glass bottles last year. Despite campaigning by the Green Party. They were so much better (and cheaper) than the plastic or card/plastic we can only get now. In Northland I remember buying milk in soft plastic bag type things but they don't seem to have ventured south (if they even do them still at all).

[Wombat]

Oh Bugger Islanz!

I used to do some work in Belfast, Christchurch and the guys there had glass milk bottles. Don't ruin my day by telling m they are now gone!

Nev

[Daisy's Mum]

We still have a local milk round, as well as the co-op. They both still use bottles, but if you want organic milk, it comes in cartons and is not sourced locally so what do you do?

I use our local milkman, who is now resorting to knocking on doors of an evening to drum up business as so few people get it delivered now- thanks to the evils of the local tescos (which has systematically destroyed the village in was placed near - as with all the others)

When I lived in S. Yorkshire (where DH hails from) we even had milk round there, but it was done by a friends 17 year old daughter as it wasn't enough to keep someone ful time, that was a few years ago now so I should think that that has been knocked on the head by now.

Maybe I'm lazy but I love the fact that I can get up in the morning and find my milk out the front, and you can feel a little smug knowing that you are keeping a local persons job going by using their services, but who knows for how much longer, he has already had to reduce his deliveries to keep costs down, so I wonder how much longer it will be before he goes entirely.

One more local business being crippled by supermarkets. When will it end?