- Cardboard (3150 grams)
- Disposable Plastic (2880 grams)
- Tetrapak (1340 grams)
- Reusable Glass (350 grams / based on 6 uses)
- Returnable Plastic (38.4 grams / based on 150 uses)
Quantity of greenhouse gas emissions required for each packaging type per quart of milk based on individual usage.
NOTE: These values are considered an approximate based on averages.
We aim to provide our customers with up-to-date research so they know all their options and can make informed decisions for themselves and their family.
Part 2 of our Reusable Bottles Article focuses on comparing the amount of greenhouse gasses used to create each type of milk package.
Our research figures are presented in the article, “What’s the Most Eco-Friendly Milk Container?” (Eating Well, 2019)
We analyzed 5 types of packaging: Glass, Disposable Plastic, Returnable Plastic, Tetrapak and Cardboard.
Disposable plastic takes 5760 grams of energy to produce a single bottle and has the initial highest amount of energy needed to create. So does this mean our bottles per quart are the worst contributor for greenhouse gases? NO!
They actually contribute the least greenhouse gases overall since these bottles are typically reused over 150 times!!! Which means for quantity of greenhouses gasses to produce a single bottle their lifespan greatly reduces future emissions. (5760 grams for 1 bottle/150 uses = 38.4 grams per bottle over its lifetime)
Glass bottles typically have an average of 6 refills out of each life cycle before breakage or damage. When reuse it taken into consideration the input for glass is adjusted to 350 grams per use – substantially less than any non-reusable packaging, but not less than reusable plastic.
Reusable plastic really shines when the amount of times reuse is taken into consideration (our bottles are extremely difficult to purposely break or damage and can be used on average of 150 times); with 150 uses the greenhouse gasses drop to approximately 38.4 grams of greenhouse used for each bottle. Since reusable plastic only contains two times the amount of plastic compared with a disposable bottle – it results in less than 1.3% of the total plastic mass ending up in recycling or in the landfill when reuse is taken into account.
It is important when researching the environmental impact of packing to consider the reuse rates over the lifetime of the packaging. We believe for the environment, for safety and for convenience returnable plastic (BPA free) with the highest reuse rate is far superior to any other type of container.
