Is the plastic milk cartons worse than the corrugated cardboard cartons?

And the regular milk bottles teleport themselves to the supermarkets and consequently your fridge? The truck is going no matter what. The fact is that little diesel is burned getting it here, and it supports a local milk company, and it is extremely convenient. (and sort of nostalgic )

 

Hey, as long as you're sure it's a girl cow and not a boy cow.

 

Hey, as long as you're sure it's a girl cow and not a boy cow.

 

Well ... I suppose one can buy a goat ... but then your truck is running down to the feed store all the time ... as well as all the neighbor's who own goats. I aint a perfect world after all.

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Uhhh...let's just say there are certain distinguishing features that make it pretty easy to tell. 'Boy cows' are usually called bulls, for one.

Goats eat anything and everything. Grass, weeds, flowers, leaves, clothing off the line....I can't imagine having to buy them feed.

 

I don't know.
As I've aged I think I've learned that human existence cannot be perfect. Strive as we might we must make some compromises.

When I was younger- I ran. I remember a running coach that professed that during training we should avoid dairy milk. His logic being dairy milk was meant to sustain and grow baby cows. So I got into the habit of avoiding Milk.

It's carried over into adulthood. I still avoid dairy products.

But cardboard vs. plastic? Somethings I've just got to let slide a little. Yeah, maybe the plastic is killing me, maybe if I drink a Diet Soda from a Plastic Cup I'm inadverdently inviting the Grim Reaper over for a chat...but damn I like the caffeine...and that's what they pour it in....

There are risks and benefits to everything. Too often I've also witnessed that everything changes with the next discovery or scientific report.

You could buy the Milk in the corrugated cardboard cartons...and eventually a study secretly funded by the Plastic Milk Jug Council of America, will come forth with how cardboard containers contain particles that lodge in the brain and make us all watch reality television.

For me? I guess I file this under Buy what you want...but I've got bigger things to worry about.

 

we used to buy glass. we did it 4 times. since they are half gallons, they fit into the fridge nicer. since it's glass, the milk stays cooler and is fresh down to the last bit.

unfortunately glass is expensive. so... we buy a gallon or two in plastic gallons and split it at home between the glass jugs.

it's fairly easy to clean the glass. when done fill the jug with hot and let it sit in the sink. come back with a bottle brush... lightly scrub, then rinse with the hottest water you have.

 

My vote definitely goes to glass. Our grandmothers fed their babies in glass baby bottles and there weren't any problems with chemicals leaching into the milk.

We are so fortunate to have the Straus Family Creamery :: Home locally, with their milk, cream, butter, etc. available at our local co-op and the local grocery store as well. It requires a $1.50 deposit and we just rinse the glass bottle and return. Let me tell ya, this is some good milk!

As far as recycling, I saw a fascinating program on recycling tetra-pak containers, the cardboard containers that have the foil lining. It's being done on large scale in Brazil with the new end-product being roof tiles. Wow! Apparently they were drowning in garbage and then turned their garbage into gold. Two thumbs up!!

Here's a short clip I found on YouTube:

 

By the way, let me just add that I use glass for my water as well. It's so easy to save glass bottles from juice (Knudsen, etc.) and just reuse for (filtered or non) tap water. No plastic bottles, no bph in the sports bottles, nada.

 

Human milk is high in lactose, a sugar. It's necessary for brain developement.

Glass is best, but isn't an option for most people. Most bottlers, of anything, have abandon it do to breakage and fuel cost of transport.

HDPE doesn't leach bisphenol A, and it is the most readily recycled plastic in the country. It may even be the only plastic a recycling program takes in an area.

If they were still wax lined, the carton could be just as easily recycled or even composted, but it is much more likely plastic now*. In general, it is harder to recycle a laminated package made of different materials. Great that Brazil is doing those tetra-paks, but I don't think the US uses enough, or are to spread out, to bother.

Almond milk is good, but the stuff available in stores around me now is loaded up with suga..excuse me, cane juice, sometime dehydrated, and thickeners.

Soy, the roasted nuts are addictive, but there's reasons why the Chinese extolled roots over the beans.

*Remember this novel I once read brought up the time period when styrofoam disappeared from the fast food joints because of the public backlash. I never confirmed it, but supposedly, it was possible to recycle the styrofoam at the time, and the plastic lined cups that replaced it weren't recyclable.

 

"Great that Brazil is doing those tetra-paks, but I don't think the US uses enough, or are to spread out, to bother."

Agree. The U.S. won't do anything about it until we're choking on the problem (which is what propelled Brazil to do something).

 

The OP may be asking the wrong question. Perhaps it should be,
"Are the plastic milk cartons ..."



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Well, yeah, but.....obviously, not everyone has read 'The Handbook to Gooder English'.

 

I mentioned HDPE being commonly recycled, but that may just be because of it's use in milk bottles.

A hurdle in recycling is efficiently getting post consumer material to the recyclers. Styrofoam is recyclable, but it's low density prevents most places from doing so. Without compaction, it cost more in fuel to truck back than it's worth. Then the special compactors needed likely wont fit in a center's budget.

 

All single use containers are a poor choice. No. 1 - glass, No. 2 - others paper cartons, No. 3 (last) - oil-based plastic jugs.

We are in a transition with milk jugs about to make a leap to 3 Liters (the 4 Liter size was deemed to be too large and heavy) with a rounded bottom for ease of handling.

 

It looks like this idea can be done right at the waste facility.

Otago man makes plastic fantastic | Otago Daily Times Online News Keep Up to Date Local, National New Zealand & International News

This is also intriguing...


Interlocking Polli-Brick Used for EcoARK

 

Unfortunetly, we don't live in communes and can buy in bulk packaging.
The cartons are plastic lined, though. Less plastic than a the bottle, but currently unrecyclable.

Hopefully, in the future it won't matter what the packaging is, and we'll be skimming plastic from the ocean instead of drilling for crude.
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization]Thermal depolymerization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]