Life Without Plastic - Day Four

[siglinde99]

So far, so good. I am running low on milk, though, so I have looked up Cochrane's Dairy. They still deliver milk, in glass bottles, in my neighbourhood. I haven't decided yet whether it is more efficient, in terms of overall pollution, than just going to the store. Cochrane's has a truck that goes door-to-door; I know this because it has often woken me up at 5 am when it delivers to my neighbour.

I usually buy my milk at the nearby grocery store - usually as part of a large shopping trip when I'm in the car anyway, but sometimes I will get off the bus early and walk home with the milk, or stop in when cycling. Plastic doesn't break down easily, but glass can get broken and it needs washing (I still remember the dangers of algae blooms from phosphates in our soap. Wikipedia has a good article on the issue here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algal_bloom, including a picture of the 2011 algae bloom on Lake Erie. I would have included a link to the Environment Canada site on the issue of algae and keeping the Great Lakes clean, but the link appears to be dead). Also, small dairies may have challenges with environmental regulations, as Cochrane's faced last year: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cochrane-s-dairy-charged-with-dumping-waste-water-into-river-1.2545377. On the other hand, if they are using organic milk and supporting smaller farmers, they may be helping to reduce the algae blooms, or worse, caused by over-concentration of cattle waste. Remember Walkerton? Other factors led to the tragedy, but the illness itself was caused by e-coli contaminated water run-off from a dairy farm into a well that fed the town's water system.

Cochrane's doesn't seem to have a public web page, but I have requested a price list and link to the web site via their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cochranes-Dairy-Ltd/265550186809349. I'm curious to see what I learn. If all else fails, I'll ask Tom up the street.

Comments

[buttongirl.livejournal.com]

My Boss uses Cochranes and swears by their freshness and quality. He and his wife switched to them because she has a very discerning palate to do with milk spoilage. Even the freshest big shop milk tastes spoiled to her, but Cochranes is fresher and nicer to her.

My boss is a big greeny, so I am sure he has thought about the implications of the clean up of the bottles, but I haven't asked him about this part of the milk delivery. They come to Peters shop (in Brittania) around 9 am on Friday mornings.

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard back about costs etc. If your boss has info to share, that would be awesome.

[ilanikhan.livejournal.com]

I have often thought about "what is really better"? I mean, there's an intuitive answer, for sure. But I wonder what the "costs" are for producing glass bottles, for example, and shipping them to be used, then cleaning and sterilizing, shipping to deliver, etc.
I"ve heard it said that recycling can take more energy/carbon foot print than making new - but then you ask what to do with the disposed things. And that locally produce may actually have a bigger carbon footprint than stuff from farther away because of mass production efficiencies in transport etc.

Just thinking about it now, they have to sterilize those milk bottles. What do they do? Boiling water? That uses water and energy. Maybe a chemical? Bleach or something else? What happens to the disinfectant afterwords? What's the effect?

This month's challenge is to reduce plastic. Reduce the amount we leave behind. It's specifically about that kind of green. And surely to have to think about every detail, one would go mad. It's just interesting to me to consider my assumptions when I make a choice with complicated ethics/standards.

[siglinde99.livejournal.com]

I love puzzling through all those puzzling complicated choices, and the law of unintended consequences. I think it's what allows us to figure out nuanced and sustainable responses to the challenges we face (at all levels, and in many different areas of our lives). It's why I became a public servant rather than a politician.

[finalcut999.livejournal.com]

Loved getting cochranes. Miss it terribly.