To think using a milkman is good for the environment

[Meadowland]

Just that really. Using returnable glass bottles instead of plastic.
Mine also delivers lots of organic stuff.
I know it works out more expensive, but there are usually plenty of things on offer, and I get so much from mine so save on fuel.

Refrigerated milk is a new concept, pasturised milk at room temperature is fine, it needs to get really hot for bacteria to start growing, about 37 degrees.

UHT milk stored at room temperature is fine. Regular pasteurised milk (which is most of the milk bought in Britain) will turn sour out of the fridge within a couple of hours.

My milkman always makes sure he puts it in a shady spot.
Never had any go off in the last 20+ years.

I have a small cool box on the front step for mine. Our milkman comes in the very early hours, sometimes 2am.

We've been having our milk delivered in glass bottles for about 10 years now. It does cost more per pint, but because our local shop is Asda, it's saved us money in the long run because every time I popped into asda for milk, I'd come out having bought a load more stuff!

Poopboobsleeprepeat is spot on. If you really want to do something to help the environment, limit and ultimately stop consuming dairy and meat.

Animal agriculture is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation.

Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

Those fires which are happening in the rainforest are a direct result of tree clearance, through farmers wanting more land to graze their cattle.

Organic means no antibiotics for the poor cows suffering with painful mastitis... It doesn't

None of mine have been pinched. And I've usually got the local drug dealers loitering near my house.

We use a milkman, glad bottles, electric float, we get organic veggies, cheese and butter from him too, occasionally bread. When the weather was hot I was putting a cool box with ice packs out just before I went to bed and he was putting the milk in there, we don't have an issue with it going off but only order a pint or two at a time. I like that I can order up to nine the night before. He delivers to us between five and six.
I do understand the cost could be prohibitive though.

We had to give up on our milkman after he changed delivery days.
The money saved is enough to cover our broadband charges per month and our local council recycles the plastic bottles (not the tops though)

Ours great glass bottles electric van. We quite committed to minimising and accept if we have to pay abit more. Also bought soda stream to make own fizzy water to cut back on that plastic.

We use Milk&More and they're great. Unhomogonised silver top with proper cream on top, just like when I was a kid :-) The difference in fat between that and semi-skimmed is very small, so why not have the better taste!

"producing soya milk is significantly less damaging in terms of: greenhouse gas emissions, land use and water supply. "

Soya milk in large quantities is bad for you, particularly for men as it contains phytoestrogens: a bloke in the US was drinking so much he grew boobs. It also contains tryptin inhibitors, which can affect your digestion.

My oncologist has told me to avoid all soya products as my breast cancer was hormone receptive and soya replicates the female hormones.

Full fat milk also has less sugar than semi and skimmed and I have to keep my sugar low due to chemo induced diabetes, so I've been getting gold top. Lush! Get 2 pints a week and 2 pints of s/s for oh. I can change my order up to midnight the night before.

The milkman here charges 70p a pint and it comes in a plastic bottle. Asda sell 4 pints for £1.09 so I would be silly to pay loads more using the milkman. I also walk to asda and back so no fuel is being used for delivery unlike tbe Milk float.

I would love to do this but it’s so expensive. £1 a pint here. I can get 4 pints of milk for £1.09 with my regular shopping. I have no need to pay £4 for it.

The point of the op is the environmental impact of millions of unrecycled plastic milk cartons versus glass bottles which are recycled between 15 and 50 times.
The incidental bonus is that milk in glass bottles tastes much nicer and fresher (no plastic infusion!) so for me the small extra cost is worth it.

My next-door neighbour is the only one in our road who still uses the milkman. It wouldn't be any good for me though, as he delivers to our road at 10.00am, so the milk would be on the doorstep for several hours. I would need to install a fridge in the porch!

pooboibsleeprepeat is certainly entitled to their opinion on the environmental impact of large scale fairy farming,

However I would like to point out that organic milk DOES NOT mean that cows do not receive antibiotics when they have mastitis FGS. It means the milk cannot go into the food chain while it contains the medicine. Which while we’re at is true of non- organic dairy farms too FYI.

I would love to use the milkman but he comes here around 12:30am, no such a problem in winter but through the summer I couldn't use milk that had been sat out for so long. We are also on a route home from the pub for many so it's easy to steal/get tampered with.

On the topic at hand, I’m not sure companies like milk and more are any better for the environment - it’s owned by Muller which are just another massive milk buying multinational.

I wish there were more farmers able to sell their milk on a small scale to the local population.

I’m fairly sure the price milkmen charge per pint is a far more accurate reflection of the true cost than supermarkets using milk as a loss leader. We use a milkman so we’ve always got milk in - saves popping to the shops for milk and coming out with £10 of stuff. No shop in our village so the milkman is kind of a mobile shop - delivers much more than just milk.

@Gingerkittykat lots of places are starting to sell glass bottles for milk that you can then use in their in-store vending machines. Our local bakers and greengrocers does it. Once you've bought the bottles it works out cheaper than delivered milk for us -50 p a pint vs 80p a pint.

My problem is we go through about 14 pints a week! I get 6 pints delivered once a week for a few days and will start getting glass bottles at the bakery but will still have to lug 4 glass bottles home somehow (each bottle holds a litre)!

There's a milkman near me (part of a big chain). They deliver in plastic bottles...I've enquired. It's £2.79 for 2litres. I pay £1.09 in Tesco for the same. 🤷‍♀️

(No 'carting back/petrol costs' etc as I'm going there anyway to do the rest of my shopping!)

In my experience that price is not passed back to the farmer Molto.