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Consider the billions of plastic jugs, paper cartons, and glass bottles needed for milk. Now consider a vessel far more compact and environmentally sound -- a plastic milk bag.
In Ontario, Canada (largest state by population), 75-80% of milk comes in plastic bags, also in Uruguay, Colombia, Brazil, Russia, Argentina, Hungary, South Africa and India.
Here’s how it works: at the supermarket you pick up a plastic sack containing three pouches of milk holding roughly one gallon. You place the pouch in a pitcher, snip off a corner and pour.
So why is this cheaper, more ecologically friendly milk container not more prevalent in the US -- or NZ? By the 1960s, consumers began shifting away from glass-bottled milk in favour of jugs and cartons; and what consumers want, they get.
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