Revival of the Milkman

On By emilygoeseco
Photo by freestocks.org on Pexels.com

We never had a milkman as a child. Growing up at the turn of the millennium the convenience of supermarket milk in a plastic bottle was already something that was taken for granted by a lot of people. It is this convenience, not just of always having milk available in the shops, but having a large number of products ready-to-use in plastic, that I believe has led us to the current problem we are having with plastic pollution and its impact on the environment and health (I’m not going to bore you all with the details as I am sure we are all aware of the suffering marine life and the microplastics in the food chain thanks to recent media attention). So, to aid in my attempts to buy consciously rather than conveniently and reduce my plastic use, I have opted to have my milk delivered in a glass bottle.

I did my research into setting this up, and found my milk would be from the UK and delivered from a local warehouse. The glass bottles I could then return for re-use, and the price difference between 1 pint in glass and what I had been buying from the supermarket was about 20p. Considering I’m also trying to cut down on my dairy intake (that will need a whole other post), this price difference I worked out would not really effect my budgets. So, all in all this looked like a good option for me.

Setting up the deliveries was then really simple, I did it all through the website. I just set up an account and then placed my order, highlighting which ones I wanted regularly. To make changes to the order I can then just log in and add anything I want…. Or even let them know when I need to pause my deliveries for when I won’t be in the house.

Unfortunately, it turned out my house was rather difficult for the milkman to find, so I didn’t get my first delivery as expected. But I rang the customer services and they were really helpful, and after giving a more detailed description of where the house was, I got a successful delivery. Since then the only other hiccup has been one occasion where we ran out of milk… I blame the last minute macaroni cheese! Luckily though I’m a big fan of a proper earl grey tea, so I restricted myself to only this if I wanted a hot drink and that saw us through to the next delivery.

One thing we have found with the glass bottles is that the foil lid probably isn’t the best seal to use once you have initially opened the bottle. You have to be quite careful not to rip it when you take it off, and then over time it gets a bit flimsy. Luckily I have found some silicone bottle tops specially designed for milk bottles which can just be washed and reused, so at £3 for 3 I class that as a really cheap investment.

Recently, I have also found that my milkman will deliver fresh fruit juice and squash in glass as well. I was really excited by this as that’s even more plastic I can cut out of my life!! I have tried in the supermarket to buy squash or cordials in glass, but unfortunately they don’t have any flavours I like (and if you have kids they aren’t child friendly flavours), but my milkman will deliver the standard orange or blackcurrant straight to my door! At £2-£3 a bottle this is more expensive than your supermarket stuff, but I believe if we create the demand then we force the big companied into changing their ways.

 So I will leave you with a final thought; as someone who has been buying on average one bottle of milk per week, by having a milkman I can save 52 bits of plastic from being made/lost in the recycling/polluting the environment. This I think is amazing, because I know many people who get through a lot more milk than I do, a couple of bottles per week for some of them. So imagine how much we could reduce plastic waste by if everyone had milk in glass bottles!

Tips:

  1. Give a really good description of your house when setting up a delivery to ensure the milkman can find you.
  2. Invest in some reusable bottle tops to help keep your milk from going off.
  3. Have an idea of what you’re going to be using during the week, and if needed add on an extra bottle of milk.
  4. See what else your milkman can deliver in less plastic.

15 thoughts on “Revival of the Milkman”

  1. ellieslann's avatar ellieslann

    I grew up with milk delivered to the door. I have a lot of fond memories of rushing to be the first to open the next bottle because then you would get the cream from the top. It’s delicious on cereal and you know that it’s fresh. I don’t know if this is true but I still have the perception that it has fewer additives so is healthier – that is probably just my prejudice!
    As a family of 5 we got through quite a lot of milk and tended to have deliveries every other day, they’re always reliable – I don’t remember ever having a missed delivery. Moving away from home, I found it very odd to go to the shop to buy milk and whenever I go back to my parents they still have those glass bottles that they put out at night (though there are fewer now).

    I agree with what you say about the foil tops being awkward. There is definitely a knack to opening them without pushing them too far into the bottle. If you push them too far they become too bent to put back on the top, though we never felt the need to invest in silicone ones because a single bottle never hung around very long!
    We also used to collect the foil tops because we found somewhere that recycled them – I can’t remember where but I believe foil is now widely recycled in the normal way.

    Reading your post Emily, I’m definitely going to look into the delivery option, my only concern is the extra fuel used to deliver the bottles and how that balances with reducing the plastic waste.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I understand your concern about the extra fuel. I thought about this problem too. The way I like to think of it is, that the fuel used would be the same as what I, and the other people on the delivery, would use to drive ourselves to the shop. So if I can then be savvy with my grocery shopping and cut down on my visits to the supermarket it doesn’t work out as extra fuel to what I was using before….. it’s not perfect, but not much is.

      I wish you luck in re-finding that milk delivery joy you had as a child!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. Hannah Matthews's avatar Hannah Matthews

    I love this! Now if only I can find me a soy/almond/oat milkman! We had a milkman when I was very small but, unfortunately we had some thirsty foxes in the local area so my mum and dad did have to get up early to rescue bottles!

    Like

    Reply

  3. We’ve had a milkman for years and years, and have continued for exactly the reasons you have described!!! Great post!
    By the way, does your milkman deliver veg boxes? Ours does, and I had my first last week and was amazed at the quality, and at how much was in the box! The eco household goods are excellent too, i got food waste bags, pan scrubs and a washing up brush!

    Like

    Reply

    1. I use milk and more as well, but I haven’t tried the veg boxes yet, I have been getting my veg from the local market. I’m excited to see they are now doing yoghurts in glass jars, so I have added one of those to my order this week to try.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      3. I just used 1 litre of milk heated to 40 degrees C, and 60ml of plain yoghurt stirrred in, then kept in a warm place overnight – like the airing cupboard. This usually works but I do gt the occasional miss!

        Like

  5. Pingback: New Years Eco-lutions – Emily Goes Eco

  6. Pingback: Trying to remain eco-friendly in lockdown – Emily Goes Eco

Leave a comment