Nice Jugs and How to Milk Them for all They're Worth
by Jenna Watson, Barcelona on 12.29.07
This holiday season for sure you’ve had many guests and used lots of that sweet nectar of the cows – milk. We were looking into the impacts of milk jugs versus cartons and found an interesting study that goes a little against our typical idea of what is greener. This study on the Use Less Stuff website reports that plastic milk jugs have less overall environmental impacts than cartons or even PLA jugs.
The study notes that milk jugs are recycled at a rate of 29%, but that also means that 71% are going to landfills. That’s a lot of high density polyethylene milk jugs sitting there that may never break down. Of course, they duly notes that it takes more energy to make PLA milk jugs given the new-ness of the technology and additionally, the plastic guys take less material to make the same thing (one of the reason that glass is also less efficient). Thus it appears that the overall energy requirements are less for the traditional HDPE jug than the PLA jug, the carton and the glass bottle. They didn’t look at the plastic bag option, which probably would have come out on top.
We went looking for what to do with these landfill fillers and how to milk them for all they’re worth. We found a very handy website that provides more than 35 ways to reuse those HDPE milk carriers. A few of our favorites include:
Swim floaters for kids: When my kids were young we didn't have a lot of money. When we went to the pool swimming we used milk jugs for floaters. Tie a sting to each handle. You may use one or two on each side. Place them near under arm and tie string around the child. Now he can float. May want to super glue the lids on.
Make a Wall-o-Water
Fill jugs with water and arrange them in a ring around plants. Cover the ring at night to preserve heat absorbed during the day. When the danger of frost and cold has passed, use the warmed water to water your plants. For warmer water, paint the containers black before filling them. This is a good way to regulate heat in cold frames and greenhouses.
And of course, the classic clothes pin holder for your clothes line. Not only can you reuse your milk jug this way, but you’re also reducing your clothing impactsby hanging dry!
Poor man's blender
Add yogurt, soy milk, fruit juice, nutritional powders, crushed berries or jam to a 1/2 to 1-gallon plastic milk. Replace the lid and shake like crazy. Store extra in the fridge.
Where to put the toilet bowl brush?
Cut a hole out from the top corner opposite the handle. Voila, problem solved.
Take a look at the Plantea site here to see all of the re-uses (like making giant igloos, ball catchers, berry pickers) for these plastic containers that are difficult to avoid if you like milk. Also read our own guide on How to Green Your Gardening. The life cycle assessment of milk containers is available here. Image Credit: Drinkstuff.
What an excellent topic for study! It's very surprising to see that returnable glass bottles don't come out on top. Would the authors please verify that the model of having glass bottles reused 8 times (see footnote in table one) was carried through in all the other calculations? For example, in table 2, the glass bottle is the worst producer of greenhouse gases for the use per container ... but would be the best if one took into account that each container was reused 8 times.
The glass will eventually go back into sand while the plastic stays plastic. It's choking the life out of the ocean.
Interesting, but as an individual consumer who uses glass bottles, and returns every bottle for reuse - can I continue to assume that glass is better?
The transport involved includes trips on my part that would be made regardless of milk bottles, and bottles being returned to the farm from which the store sources their milk.
Any insights?
Hello????? The energy and resources utilized to make just one gallon of secretions from a cow (a.k.a. Milk) uses way more energy than any other product you folks are discussing in this article. Just stop drinking Milk / consuming animal products. Simple as that!!!!
Yes, good LCA practice and functional units imply that the 8 reuses for the glass bottle are carried throughout the entire study. So the numbers you see include that as part of how the glass bottle is considered. The other options were not considered to be used 8 times because plastic jugs are not reused, but rather recycled in an ideal world.
As for using your own bottles and going directly to get milk from the farmer...that is a great option! I have a friend who does the same thing with a dairy farmer. He drives over and pics up the milk in a big pot before it's even been pasteurized. He then boiles it a couple times before he can drink it. That seems to be probably the option with perhaps the least impacts of all in that study, but I didn't mention because not all of us are lucky enough to have that opportunity! Way to go and keep filling up those bottles.
KC - most people aren't even willing to give up their leafblowers, let alone their red meat and white milk. There must be compromises in this movement, as with any other.
@KC
The vast vast VAST majority of people are not going to stop drinking milk or eating animal products.
I'm glad to see folks doing real calculations about environmental impact so people can make their choices on facts rather than belief.
Here's another thing to consider. In many areas of the country, dairy farmers just don't exist. The town I grew up in had two when I was a child but now, both are gone and the only place people can get milk is in the supermarket and plastic jugs, cartons or aseptic packaging. The same is true local food sources. If we had to rely on food sources within 100 mile radius, most people would starve to death. we don't have farms in part because farmers cannot get labor. If they can get labor, it's by importing cheap talent from Mexico or the Caribbean.
If you want to change the situation, are you willing to pay three to four times what you pay today for food? That's what it would take to enable farmers to have enough money to not sell out to a real estate developer and to pay a living wage attractive workers that would otherwise work in heated/air-conditioned office space. After all, what would you choose? A work environment where you are filthy and sweaty all the time and run the risk of having body parts damaged or ripped off of you or, a work environment where the worst injury they might get is from twisting an ankle (if you wear heels) or a paper cut. Which raises follow on questions, how much money would a farmer have to pay you to work 20 or 30 years on a farm? what happens when you have children and they want to go to college? How much money would you need then?
A green life is hard, time-consuming, and very stressful . You will need many more people doing hard labor. and we will need to pay much much more for food and spend much more time getting that food.
I think my last question was triggered by milk bottles but brings it full circle through the entire lifecycle of grass to cow to bottle to you and that question is "Do you have the money and the time to live the Green life?"
In response to my comment at the top, I got this response from Use Less Stuff:
We have a terrific local dairy farm that uses glass bottles and treats their cows well.
KC, I do agree that the best environmental step is to greatly reduce or eliminate consumption of animal products. I never buy or cook meat, but I do bake with milk. Mmmm .... cake!
Packaging aside, the truth is that dairy manufacturing is horrible for the environment. If a fraction of the VAST majority of PEOPLE reduced their milk and animal product intake it would be HUGELY effective in the fight against pollution across the world.
Maybe someday the enviroment will be so important that PEOPLE, the vast vast majority of THEM will rid their addiction to animals.
Its really just too bad SOME PEOPLE can't control their urges.
hmmmm.
I have to say that giving some poor child milk bottle floats is asking to have the sh*t kicked out of him…
I am wondering if the study took into consideration the consequences to the environment of the entire cycle of plastic production, including the plastic pellets called "nurdles" which are filling up the oceans and attracting and concentrating toxins which are making their way up the food chain. I don't think these studies go far enough.
I am avoiding plastic is much as I possibly can and will continue to buy my local, organic milk from Straus in Marin County. I just wish they could find a non-plastic cap for their reusable glass bottles.
I was Googling to determine what the logetivity/life cycle of the common HDPE milk jug is, when I stumbled into this site. FYI - I didn't find the answer to my question. This said, we are using washed milk jugs to store basic foods, e.g., sugar, salt, lentils, peas, etc. We purchase our milk at Costco, and Costco's milk comes in the square milk jug, in a 2-pack, that is boxed. This packaging is ideal to store foods because the boxes stack really well and the quantity stored per unit space is very efficient. Yes, we are recycling both the jug and the box. HDPE as a material has the potential to last well over 20-years; far longer than the foods stored inside the former milk jug. What I don't know is how long the HDPE milk jug will last given it is a thin film (approx. 10-mils). Any ideas?