Say goodbye to your milk cartons

Posted Jun 29th 2007 at 5:54PM by Anne Metz (Subscribe to Anne Metz's posts)

With retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot offering shelf-space preference to green products, it's no wonder that companies are clamoring to redesign their packaging.

But earth-friendly packaging for the milk industry? In what other than a carton or a bottle could you possibly sell milk?

Apparently, you can sell it in a bag. Calon Wen, an organic dairy co-op in Wales, now packages milk in polythene bags, which can then be transferred by consumers into reusable milk jugs made from glass. Compared to a plastic milk jugs, which account for 100,000 tons of trash a year in Wales alone, polythene bags use 75% less plastic.

Sure, polythene bags make environmental sense, but will it catch on with consumers? My guess is yes. Milk in a bag is oh-so-astronauty. And if there is one thing that sells stuff it's astronauts. The exception to this rule would be adult diapers, which I imagine will never recover from the PR disaster they took earlier this year.

Source

Tags: do good, DoGood, food, milk, wales

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bonnie 6-29-2007 @ 6:47PM

You all make me laugh the canadians have had milk in bags for years thats a shame how the north usa says the south is backwards well guess what usa wake up you all are in the dark ages yourself this really makes me laugh this will hold me happy for at least a month

Teresa 6-29-2007 @ 6:29PM

Teresa 6-29-2007 @ 6:30PM

Milk in bags is not a new idea, they've been doing it in Ontario, Canada for at least 30 years.

Larry W. 6-29-2007 @ 6:38PM

Milk has been soldin plastic bags for may years, I bought it in Canada in 1978 the sel a plastice container thst hlds the bsg and you pour from the bag. I thought it was greast then ans still do. Good luck to the milk industry hope the succeed

Pat 6-29-2007 @ 7:10PM

We have had milk in a bag in the Wisconsin region...sold by Kwik Trip for about 15 years. Nothing new.

Henna 6-29-2007 @ 7:07PM

Haha, that's EXACTLY what I was going to say! Canadians mostly buy their milk in bags and yes it caught on... DECADES ago. Hilarious....

Pat 9-28-2007 @ 9:34AM

Ohhh Read Carefully.

The milk is from ... not the USA at all ... but WALES

peanno2na 6-29-2007 @ 7:24PM

We here in Michigan had milk in a bag decades ago. You plop the bag in a pitcher designed to hold it and snip off a corner of the bag. . . no need even to mess around transferring to a jug.

Stacia 6-29-2007 @ 8:40PM

So, America is in the dark ages just because we don't commonly sell milk in a bag? If that's what's holding us back from being on the same level as the rest of the world, I'm not too worried.

terry 6-29-2007 @ 9:59PM

Milk in a bag by Boone Dairy circa 1978, Boone, Iowa never caught on but was sold in pouches to school lunch program with little straws to pierce the bag and drink. Larger half gallons required a clear plasrtic pitcher to hold large gallon bag of milk and type of closurer built into the pitcher top corner after you snipped a corner off to pour the milk out