A Lot Of Bottle

Good for farmers and good for the planet, the milk round is back with a 21st-century twist..

- Emma Hughes

IT’s early on a Saturday morning and the air smells intoxicatingly of spring. I’m in the kitchen in my dressing gown, with the window open, waiting for the kettle to boil. I reach for the fridge door reflexively, then I remember. Pulling my slippers on, I race downstairs like a child rushing to the tree on Christmas Day. there, waiting for me on my doorstep, is a cool glass bottle with a foil top.

A couple of weeks ago, after spending my entire adult life buying milk in plastic cartons from supermarkets, I signed up for a weekly glass-bottle delivery. It costs a little more per pint (about a third extra), but I was happy to pay: not just to support dairy farmers and cut down on waste, but to help create a sense of community that can be hard to find if, like me, you live in a city. Dave Cousins, the local milkman, has been doing the rounds of my patch of London for decades.

When I was born in the 1980s, some 90% of the milk consumed by Britons was delivered to their doorsteps. However, three years ago, the percentage had dropped to just 3%. the boom in so-called ‘alt-milks’ (almond, oat, soy) was partly to blame, but, mostly, it was a matter of convenience and price: with a pint of milk functioning as a litmus test for competitiveness, many stores run it as a loss leader, creating a race to the bottom and devaluing milk as a whole.

We all know we should be doing more to make sure producers are properly recompensed and reduce our reliance on planet clogging plastic, but does the milk round really have a place in modern life? Even the phrase feels old-timey, conjuring up images of Norman Wisdom in The Early Bird and Benny Hill being chased down the road.

However, although the latest official figures from Dairy UK are yet to be released, anecdotally, things are looking rosy—and it’s down to a combination of digital innovation and the good, old-fashioned human touch.