Since we are on a packaging discussion beverage trend here, why don’t we continue with milk.

Remember those days of yore when the milk man delivered glass bottles full of milk settled into wire baskets? And when the family consumed what was inside you set out the empty bottles for the delivery man to pick up. What waste is there in that? Perhaps the bottle caps?

FF>> to present day…our family thinks little of plopping a couple plastic gallon containers into our shopping cart. Only to later plop those same plastic gallon containers into the trash. When we had two little ones taking bottles that was about 2 1/2 plastic containers in the landfill a week or 150 per year!! Yikes.

I just found a more eco-friendly alternative at our natural foods store. With this glass container you need only waste the plastic carry-thingie and the bottle cap. Return the bottle to the grocery to get a deposit refund and feel much better about throwing out less.

There is however, a hefty price tag that goes with this more eco-friendly product. (Why is it that throwing out less costs you more?) A gallon of milk in a glass container is 400% of the cost of conventional milk in plastic. And it is still 125% of the cost of a gallon of organic milk in a plastic container. THAT is expensive.

My children love the taste of this un-homogenized milk and we go through it pretty quick. I love the creamy taste too, and love baking with it. Special occasions I say.

Which brings me to, why is it that less wasted packaging costs more? Or is it that price is relative? What if all milk were $7.58 a gallon? Would we use less? Would we use it more frugally? Would we waste less? Would we choose alternatives? Hummm. This made me think a bit about what we choose to put in our fridge and how much we choose to consume. Are we just accustomed to excess? How do we re-orientate our minds and our pocketbooks to consume more responsibly and waste less? THAT is difficult I say.