Selfsufficientish.com

What to do, I cannot decide whether it's better to have my milk (which is sourced locally) delivered or buy it from, yes, the supermarket!.....

I think I am doing the right thing having it delivered????

one of the considerations is packaging. is the local sourced milk in reusable milk bottles?
if not, is the packaging still better than supermarket?

jut to add to your thinking process

red

Traditional glass bottles. We save the tops and wash them for our son to play with, do people still collect these?

My understanding was that traditional milk deliveries are a model of environmental practice and always have been:

1. The milk is sourced locally
2. It is delivered in electric vehicles
3. It comes in glass bottles which are collected by the supplier and reused indefinitely until damaged
4. the milkman is an integral part of the community, his presence cuts down on early-morning crime and he is often the first to alert police when an elderly customer unexpectedly stops taking their milk in

The downside is:

4. It costs 50% more than buying it from the supermarket in plastic bottles because the supermarkets have the farmers over a barrel
5. If the milkman delivers after you leave for work your milk stays outside all day going sour in the summer if it isn't nicked from your doorstep by toerags with healthy bones and teeth.

there are postcode searches for a few milkmen on the web....

express

Dairy crest


the coop although this is a phone number at the mo as the site is being developed.

just search a bit more and found this site findmeamilkman.net most useful in finding a milkman.

I have been looking into this myself for the fortnight without using plastic thing that I will try out next week.

The vehicles are diesel powered now. We only have a delivery twice a week because we live out of the town a bit and luckily are early in the am so we take them in (or if we forget, our lovely neighbour looks after them for us!)...

I think we'll stick with them!