How to Make Milk Jugs Lighter? Take the Handle Off
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA 
on 02. 2.08
File this in the "little changes make a big difference" file: British milk bottle producer Nampak is working with milk supplier Dairy Crest on a pilot project to take the handle off one- and two-pint plastic milk bottles. Why? The handle-free bottle would be about 10 percent lighter, according to the UK recycling organization backing the project, WRAP. That would mean cost savings to go along with a reduction in carbon emissions, and less waste. And if the design is taken up by the whole dairy industry in the UK, it could cut the use of high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic by 5,000 tons a year.
Peter Skelton, from WRAP, said: "Plastic milk bottles are probably the most common plastic item found in household waste and manufacturers and brand owners have taken the current handled designs as far as they can go in terms of lightweighting. The vital next step is perfecting a handle-free design which works for the consumer." Who knew a little handle design change could make such a big difference? ::Food Production Daily via ::Core77
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why not get rid of the jug altogether and bag the milk, like they do in Canada? It creates far less waste.
Here is some background from the Canadian Design Resource
Great, so people like my family can no longer easily carry multiple jugs when they walk to the nearest corner store to buy milk. You've got to look at the whole picture when making decisions like this.
How would you pour it?
Would they shape it more like fizzy bottle, and keep the same volume by making it taller?
As long as this doesn't cause any complications with fridge sizing etc, then I'm all for it!
Perhaps, but as far as I know those milk baggies are not recyclable.
Get rid of the plastic, and use Tetrapak bricks! They can be recycledl. At least we ours are, here in Sweden.
They stopped using the bags here in Canada (At least in my part of CA) because they did not work.
They spilt, leaked, poured irregularly, and required heavy plastic jugs which also ended up in the landfill.
They were dis-continued because they dropped below a minimum threshold of user-friendlines.
It just got out of hand - pun intended - and so might this. Some find hose big jugs difficult to pour from even WITH the handle. I hope I'm wrong.
"Some find hose big jugs difficult to pour from even WITH the handle."
According to the article, this only involves one- and two-pint bottles. The smallest I've seen in the US with a handle is the half-gallon.
I'd like to see an utter-like sack that I can "milk" into my cereal.
use your local milkman/lady - glass bottles are rinsed and returned, rather than having to undergo processing to make more plastic bottles.
also, regarding the health aspects of having plastic next to an absorbant liquid which we then drink daily? there have been concerns that bleach can transmit through plastic bottles and be re-absorbed by water - how does your supermarket stock their milk bottles?
honestly, we as a society are so wasteful and this is just completely brought into focus by basic food stuffs such as cows milk. everyone needs to go glass!
I buy milk in liter bags .. and recycle the bags.
With plastic, less is more.