ponderings from the dairy aisle

[cellio]

Most of the time (where I shop), milk comes in plastic containers. Occasionally, it comes in the waxy cardboard ones instead. Last night I actually had a choice, and realized I don't know which one is more green. Plastic can be recycled (good) and the cardboard can't, but I have the impression that producing the plastic container is more destructive to the environment -- and, of course, you also have to factor in the costs of recycling. Trash in a landfill also imposes a cost, and means that cost of production is borne entirely by one use. Overall, I don't know which one is less bad.

Which would you buy?

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

My municipality recycles both the plastic ones and the waxy cardboard ones.
(I tend not to buy milk at all; I don't use it up quickly enough to bother.)

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

Is the plastic opaque?

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

My city recycles both, but I tend to buy soy milk in shelf-stable packaging (which my city also recycles).

If I were in your shoes, I would buy the plastic for these reasons:
*landfill space (which you already mentioned)
*there's a market for textiles made from recycled plastic (and look! I'm wearing some now!), and the fact that there's an existing market for it means that the cost of recycling is somewhat covered by the purchase of the finished product. I'm not claiming that this makes plastic the hands-down greenest choice of all--I don't know all the issues from the initial manufacture to finished product--but it's a thought.

You might also contact your city to suggest that they start recycling the other types of packaging.

[arabella23.livejournal.com]

the city recycles both, I think. Check the back of the garbage schedule for specifics

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

I always used to prefer the waxy paper because I thought that was greener, but recently I heard about the plastic being more readily recyclable. I never thought about the fact that wax + paper is pretty hard to recycle. I have to wonder if even the places who collect it for recycling are just incinerating it.

I'd also look into health and taste issues. I always thought that in paper it tasted better, and felt that the plastic probably leached, but I've never looked into it.

Lately I've been getting my milk in glass. Now, that can't be beat. ;) If you've got a natural food store or farm that sells to the public convenient to you, it might be worth looking into. Ours is transitional organic, unhomogenized(sp?) and raw; and generally I think that's what you'll find if you do find it in glass. So you'd have to be comfortable with that.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but I buy my Smiling Hill Farm (http://www.smilinghill.com/) milk in real glass bottles that are reusable (the cost of the milk includes a $1.00 deposit on the bottle). I buy from a big chain (Hannaford Supermarkets) and they actually offer two different brands of local milk in glass bottles.

Never realized this was a regional thing. I guess I always supposed that milk in glass bottles was available anywhere, if you were willing to pay for it. But now that I think on it, I guess I don't see any in the supermarkets at Pennsic (we buy our milk on-site, so I've never had to look for milk at the Giant Eagle...)

I don't have an answer, but...

[brokengoose.livejournal.com]

some things to consider:

-The coating on paper cartons is polyethylene. So, really, it's a choice between all-plastic and plastic-coated paper.

-Most of the "organic" milk that you can get in the grocery store comes in a paper carton. I'd like to think that they've done the research and made the most environmentally-friendly choice, but it could be a matter of cost or customer perception.

-What about shelf-life and waste? I don't know, but I suspect that plastic can be made more airtight and leak-resistant. That may translate into less spoilage or other waste.

I have a suspicion that plastic is slightly better, but like you, I don't know.

[siderea]

No idea.

But I wanted to share that, back in the day, the MIT coffee house had a comment book -- a spiral notebook and a pen left on the condiments counter, where patrons could make suggestions and criticisms to the coffee house. A low-tech instantiation of a web forum, before the web was invented. :) Their note book had a, well, a running flame-war about the comparative greenness of paper cups vs. styrofoam cups. I actually would have thought it a no-brainer, but the pro-styrofoam advocate made quite the case against the paper industry, both in terms of old-growth logging and use of petrochemicals in cup manufacture. It was highly informed and highly informative.

And I still don't know which is greener. :)

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

I buy organic milk, and consequently I buy what it comes in. we can recycle either, and I do recycle all the paper-wax(poly) items I have, as well as all the plastic that I can.

The advocates of both types are persuasive, and I can't tell which side has more merit. So I am making my choice, basically, on other market factors.

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

We take our empty one gallon jar to Freeman Farms just down the road from us and pick up the full jar that we left the last time. :) :) It's raw milk, but we have a pasteurizer that we picked up on E-bay. However, to answer your question, we get our orange juice in paper cartons rather than plastic jugs because we use the cartons to hold compost. When the carton is full, the compost goes on the compost pile, and the carton goes in the burn barrel.
-- Dagonell

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

So, a balanced internal economic decision. (Sorry, Duncan has been talking every night about his econ class, and I'm afraid at the moment it's coloring my view of everything!)

[cellio]

Usually translucent ("milky white", in fact), occasionally opaque (white).

[cellio]

there's a market for textiles made from recycled plastic

*boggle*

Never heard of that before; thanks for the informaiton.

[cellio]

Hmm, I thought only unadulterated cardboard could be recycled. I'll check.

[cellio]

I hadn't considered the material affecting the contents. Good point.

[cellio]

Wow, I haven't seen milk in glass bottles since I was a kid and it was delivered by the milkman.

Re: I don't have an answer, but...

[cellio]

Good points (on both sides).

[cellio]

Did anybody enter in on the side of actual mugs (that someone then has to wash)?

[loosecanon.livejournal.com]

I buy whichever has the longest date, no matter the container.
Sometimes we get organic if it is fresh enough, but the containment device is only an issue if coolers are involved. Then we consider the close-ability of plastic, and the pack-ability of shelf-stable.

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I'd buy whichever one keeps the milk in the dark -- it keeps longer. Recycling the container doesn't make me feel better if I don't get to finish the contents.

[siderea]

I don't recall a mug faction in the debate, but personal mug usage was strongly encouraged at the coffee house.

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

well, strictly speaking it's soda bottles but I'm not sure if it's the same thing. Anyway, it's cool:

[cellio]

Ah. I've heard of Polartec but didn't know what it was made out of.

[nobble.livejournal.com]

We can recycle our milk cartons. I prefer the paper. It filters the light better and keeps the milk fresher longer. Milk from plastic tastes weird. But the best is glass. Bring back the glass bottle I say!

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

We had brown milk bottles when I was a kid -- to keep the light out?

[cellio]

That's the reason brown bottles are preferred for beer, for what that's worth.

Only slightly on-topic

[goljerp]

In Israel, the most common type of milk one finds in stores is (or, at least in '97/'98, was) milk in a bag. A soft, plastic one. You had to have a special pitcher to put the bag in, once opened, because of course it had no stiffness and all the milk would pour out if you just put it down, once opened.

Re: Only slightly on-topic

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

That was very common in East Lansing, MI, when we lived there (79-91)