by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Sainsbury’s started selling whole milk in a bag Aug 2010 following successful sales of semi-skimmed milk in this type of packaging. I must, however, say that from what I have seen in the stores I frequent the plastic jugs (where the hell the idea of the carton comes from in the press release beats me, as cartons went out nigh on with the Ark) in still what people buy and not the bags.
According to the supermarket, it now sells 120,000 milk bags each week and the most recent product launch is expected to double this figure in the coming months.
From next year, Sainsbury’s will become the first UK retailer to offer the entire milk range in bags when it starts offering skimmed and one per cent fat milk in this more environmentally-friendly wrapping.
Milk bags use 75 per cent less packaging than milk cartons, and Sainsbury’s will find them cheaper to produce. Consumers will be able to benefit from lower prices too, with two-pint milk in a bag at least 6p cheaper than cartons of the same size.
Maybe we should also consider that milk cartons are, as I have already said, basically, a thing of the past and the majority of milk is, in fact, being sold in plastic jugs of different sizes.
I am not, as yet, convinced about the bags being a “more environmentally-friendly wrapping” and I just hope that the consumer is not, yet again, been sold something that is not what it is made out to be, much like the chopped tomatoes in cartons. The latter are not, despite claims, recyclable as they contain a laminate of card and tin foil.
It would appear that it is more a case of being cheaper to produce and less packaging. However, please someone tell me that the bags really can be recycled and not, like the taking back of plastic carrier bags, are but a gimmick. The latter, for instance, is and it does not matter which store chain offers it. Those bags, dear consumers, are not recycled in any way, shape or form, but all go nicely into holes in the ground; yes, the dreaded landfill.
Earlier this year, the supermarket gave away reusable JUGIT containers in hundreds of its stores as a way of encouraging people to swap cartons for bags when buying milk.
Emma Metcalf King, Sainsbury's Senior Dairy Buyer, commented: "The familiar clink of the glass milk bottle could finally become a thing of the past.
"Milk bags in all fat varieties are already a regular choice for 60 per cent of consumers in Canada, Poland, South Africa and China and we believe they will be just as popular in the UK."
Sainsbury's has not had the clink of glass bottles for ages and it would be good if that clink would not become a thing of the past but rather the in thing again as glass is infinitesimally better than any carton or plastic, whether jug or bag.
The old fashioned glass milk bottle goes back to be sterilized and then refilled and that probably several thousands of times. The bag needs energy to be recycled, if it ever is going to be in the first place, in the same way as does the plastic bottle. When will we actually learn.
Why do the companies not tell us the truth, the real truth and that is that it is all about cost and not about the environment. I had thought that Sainsbury's was a little more honest but, alas, it seems no one is of the big boys. Such a shame...
© 2010
