Plastic or Glass?

It's kind of like the 'paper or plastic' question at the grocery store.

Sometimes there's no easy answer.

We began Straus Family Creamery by putting our milk in glass bottles.   The original idea was to produce certified organic milk in reusable glass bottles.  Milk poured from glass containers simply tastes better than milk that has been stored in plastic or cartons.  And it works out great for the environment.  Our customers have prevented a LOT of plastic from going into landfills.  Each glass bottle has a $1.50 deposit that is refunded when the cleaned bottle is returned to the  store. We reuse each bottle an average of eight times. We see nearly 95% of our bottles returned, so keep up the good work!

Please note the recent increase in bottle deposit. Beginning February 1, 2008 the deposit for a Straus glass bottle will be $1.50. We have had to increase the price due to increased freight and glass costs. We appreciate your understanding.

However, we bottle a small percentage of our milk in opaque HDPE #2 plastic half-gallon and gallon containers.  Why would a glass-bottle milk company package milk in plastic?  Good question!  We felt that gallon bottles were too heavy and too easily broken to be practical for families to use.  And like any material, plastic offers certain advantages. 

Plastic weighs 37% less than glass, so it saves fuel during its trip from the creamery to stores. And the HDPE #2 opaque plastic is recycled at a higher rate than any other plastic and is accepted by every community recycling program.  Milk cartons are not recycled due to their paper-plastic composition.  Plus, some retailers and customers who are ready to try organic products for the first time still demand plastic.  We want to offer them the chance to choose organic products and learn about renewable resources and sustainable family farming.   Once they've HERD about our cows, they'll  MOOOOVE on over to glass!  (Sorry about that dairy humor.)

Yogurt Containers

You may have noticed that we have switched our yogurt containers from HDPE #2 plastic to PP #5 plastic. We did this after much research.  We found out that much to our dismay; the #2 plastic that is tinted (like the white color on yogurt containers) is NOT recycled even if your bin accepts them.  Colored #2 plastic is considered a "contaminant" by many recycling companies. The #5 containers, though they are also not recyclable, use less plastic to form the same size container.  And #5 plastic is lighter, thus reducing fuel consumption during transport.

We are actively searching  for a compostable and biodegradable plastic packaging material that can handle a perishable product. So far, the only thing that comes close is a substance made from a by-product of genetically engineered corn.  Straus Family Creamery opposes the manufacture and use of GMOs for food packaging, food utensils, as well as for food crops or seeds.  A lot of press and media attention has been focused on this type of biodegradable packaging, but we just won't use or support the GMO corn that is used to make these products.  It goes against our organic farming principles and against our commitment to provide consumers with safe and environmentally responsible packaging.

There is a biodegradable packaging material made from sugar cane or sugar beets, but it can't hold liquid products for very long because it decomposes!  And, we haven't been able to find a non-porous lining material that would keep the moisture from getting into the container walls.  We're still looking into materials currently available in England.  We're excited by the possibilities!

We will continue to search until we find something that can handle our needs and our philosophy.  Please be patient.  And, if you know of any sources just e-mail us with the information and we'll look into it right away.