Supermarket giant rolls out greener alternatives to plastic milk bottles

Good day to you fellow ATSers!

As part of my ambition to make several threads with a positive angle this week, here is an article I found today that is on the topic of something I am very passionate about.

Sainsbury's launches Eco-friendly milk bags and jugs in multi-million pound move, with Tesco set to follow suit.

Supermarket giant Sainsbury's is to roll out "Eco-friendly" milk bags and jugs across its entire product range in a multi-million pound move to reduce the carbon footprint of milk consumption.

In partnership with supplier Dairy Crest, Sainsbury's is putting its full marketing weight behind the product, confident that reluctant consumers now understand how to use it after a series of technical modifications and an education programme.

So as an avid recycler I have to say good on Sainsbury's for initiating this product. From the looks of things they are setting the standard for other supermarkets to follow in regards to greener alternatives. These products will be nothing new to Canadian members but for the UK and elsewhere this is a great development.

It is time we finally do away with the 'Easter Egg Syndrome' that has ruled the world of packaging for as long as I can remember. How many times have you bought something from a supermarket and thought more than half the packaging was unnecessary? I know I have many a time, extra packaging not only results in more waste, but it also actually costs us the consumer more, as I'm sure you are aware.

It is also my belief that the less use of plastics in the environment the better. These new milk bags also require less energy to produce.

The new product typically contains 75% less plastic than the bottles in which at least two-thirds of the 180m pints of milk consumed by Britons every week is sold.
Less energy is used in making them and they take up far less space when disposed of.

Unfortunately sales of the new milk packets were less than desirable as many people found them difficult to use!

But many consumers have found them difficult to use, reporting leaks and spills

But with a few little tweaks and design alterations the new improved packaging is ready to roll out to a supermarket near you!

Still not convinced?

Customers switching to bags could save up to 1,400,000kg of packaging every year, Sainsbury's said.

To meet customer demand for milk bags, Sainsbury's and its supplier Dairy Crest have invested more than £2.2m in a new processing plant at its site in Gloucestershire. The expansion has created 20 new jobs.

So these bags are not only helping the environment they are stimulating the economy and creating the 'Green' jobs we have all been promised. The bags will also save the consumer roughly 3pence per pint.

Not too shabby I think you'll agree

Link to article;

www.guardian.co.uk...

I hate plastic. I wish we all had to bring our own containers for any food we wanted to purchase, grocery shopping is so wasteful. I hate it. But the plastic is the worse, its effects upon our oceans, our bodies, and our earth will be felt for generations.

Its about time these large companies start taking a bit of responsibility for their actions, they make enough profits as it is and have the funds to come up with better ways of creating less waste.

Whatever happened to getting your glass carafe refilled?

Oh, that's right. Industrial stupidity.

This is just more propaganda for a 'greener economy', that goes hand in hand with the global warming due to human exercise myth. Plastic bottles and waste are not the problem! If the billions invested in iraq were invested in the combat of pollution instead, there would be no plastic bottle left in production.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
Its about time these large companies start taking a bit of responsibility for their actions, they make enough profits as it is and have the funds to come up with better ways of creating less waste.

Very true, and I suspect the only reason this development is taking place is because it is cutting costs for them too!

My building has literally just started recycling a few weeks ago. So before that I had to drive to somewhere offering recycling facilities, which of course uses petrol.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Indeed. 15 years ago you're milk would have been delivered before dawn by a chap on an electric milk float, in glass bottles which, when empty, you'd leave out for him to take when he dropped off your daily pint in the morning, meaning it was "greener" back then than it is now! Oh, the irony!

I never understood why Milk men where edged out by supermarkets. The milk cost the same and it would be there in the morning when you wanted it, rather than getting up and finding there was only enough milk for your weetabix and not your tea, then having to go down the local shop to pay over-inflated prices for milk that, in my experience, tends to be past it's best (especially when bought from the "corner shop"....)

[edit on 12/8/10 by stumason]

reply to post by cyberjedi


If the billions invested in iraq were invested in the combat of pollution instead, there would be no plastic bottle left in production.

I totally with you here.

However I do feel that the move to a greener economy, although having the obvious connotations with man made climate change, will be a good thing.

Purely because I believe the greatest environmental challenges facing us at the minute, is not climate change, it is waste disposal and water management. These are things we will see the effects of in both the long and short term.

reply to post by stumason


Definitely! There was also a community spirit and personal touch with the milkman, as supposed to a faceless company.

Recycling is a scam, lots of our recycled items end up in dumps anyway. Just read a little bit about the energy involved in recycling, and how much new plastic is added to the recycled plastic. Read about how plastic degrades with each cycle of recycling and read about the ocean of plastic in our ocean.

You people are complaining about plastics being used more efficiently?

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
Recycling is a scam, lots of our recycled items end up in dumps anyway. Just read a little bit about the energy involved in recycling, and how much new plastic is added to the recycled plastic. Read about how plastic degrades with each cycle of recycling and read about the ocean of plastic in our ocean.

Recycling is a scam because plastic ends up in the water? That's like saying cars crash therefore seatbelts are at fault. Recycle, if it needs more energy, then generate more. New plastic may need to be added, but it's still lower than the amount needed for totally new plastics..

Whatever happened to getting your glass carafe refilled?

Oh, that's right. Industrial stupidity.

LOL.

[edit on 12/8/2010 by C0bzz]

reply to post by C0bzz


Maybe "scam" is too absolute a word.

Recycling has certainly been oversold though.

Oversold and misunderstood. Too many people believe by dropping off their milk jugs at the recycling center they are essentially putting that many milk jugs back on the shelves and that many jugs will not have to be produced new.

The reality is that only a small percentage of that plastic is reused. Next time even a smaller percentage. Nearly the original total amount ends up in a landfill just a few uses later than it would have without the 'recycling.'

It's even worse for appliances. Recycling appliances, computers, monitors is basically stripping any reusable metal from the device then shipping the hull off to a landfill in a third world country. Some ship the devices off then have the children in these countries strip the metals. When they do this they do not care for toxics control and pollute their land and sicken their bodies.

Recycling as it is is nothing at all like how recycling is popularly viewed by much of the population.

www.treehugger.com...
science.howstuffworks.com...

[edit on 12-8-2010 by thisguyrighthere]

This is nothing more than marketing,trying to be cool.These big supermarket chains couldnt give a rats about being environmentally friendly, they are just targetting the the idea that's popular at the moment.If it was cool to waste ,these people would wrap each item you bought in a plastic bag then put in a foam box,nothing more than the latest fad.If anyone was really concerned you wouldnt even walk in their door.Remember it's all about dollar$ sad but true.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


The same goes for paper too. You have different grades of paper quality just like plastic, depending on how much it has been reprocessed. This gradual deteriorates the quality, but it is still worth doing.

The more people do it the more investment goes into developing the actual recycling plants, due to demand, and therefore it will inevitable become more efficient.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


Paper has the benefit of biodegrading rather quickly with or without recycling. The trouble with paper is in the limited source. Limited artificially in that legislation against hemp makes for more cut timber.

Lumber practices replanting. Makes sense. Otherwise they'd slash and burn themselves out of jobs. But there will be a point at which lumber is cut faster than they can grow.

I certainly wouldnt advocate giving up on recycling entirely. But if we sit on it too long we'll miss real solutions or accept a certain amount of waste is tolerable. No doubt there will be issues down the road with a "recycling lobby" preventing through influence the adoption of better solutions.

If we see it for what it really is that's fine. I'm afraid it's already the "godsend" for too many people and that will just get in the way.

reply to post by hotbakedtater


I was a press operator in a injection molding factory.
We would grind up rejected materials to use again.
The problem is,you can only use so much recycled
plastic in processing new.
The plastic scrap had to be free from dirt,oil and other
debris,before it could be used.

reply to post by stumason


The good old milkman, i do miss that.
And the old crates had limitless interior functions for the poor and obscure alike.
Seating, laundry hampers, general storage.
Up until a few years ago when i became more prosperous they served me in many ways.
They have since been donated to grateful share houses.

Originally posted by hotbakedtater
I hate plastic. I wish we all had to bring our own containers for any food we wanted to purchase, grocery shopping is so wasteful. I hate it. But the plastic is the worse, its effects upon our oceans, our bodies, and our earth will be felt for generations.

The only problem with "bringing our own containers" is some people are not so clean, and that would include bringing their bacteria and infections into public access places and contaminating spouts and scoops with their containers and feshly sneezed in hands, just before dropping the scoop back into the peanuts you need to make that fresh peanut butter.

Yum.

Kind of leads one to believe that perhaps this is why we have sterile packaging in the first place.

Hm.