For anyone who grew up in the 1980s or earlier, the gentle clinking of glass bottles and electric whirr of the milk-float were as familiar to the morning soundscape as the dawn chorus.
Yet by the 1990s major supermarkets had switched to cheap plastic bottles, buying in bulk to drive down prices, and leaving the milkie struggling for business.
However glass bottled milk is making a comeback. Buoyed by growing fears about the impact of plastic on the environment, milkmen are reporting an increase in interest for the traditional ‘pinta’.
Mark Woodman, 56, who runs Woodman’s Dairy in Rumney, Cardiff, has recently spent thousands refurbishing his old milk float to meet the new demand, which he puts down to recent pledges to tackle plastic waste by the government and industry.
“This week and last week we’ve been inundated with phone calls asking us if we deliver glass bottles,” he said.
“We’ve had 50 to 100 people call in this week, with 30 to 40 new customers off the internet looking to cut down on their use of plastic.
“It’s great for us. Anything that gives us a bit of business back from the supermarkets is really good for us.”
Dairy UK which represents the milk industry, said doorstep deliveries of glass bottles were now around one million per day. Just two years ago the figure was estimated to be nearer 800,000.
Mr Woodman said he was receiving up to 140 enquiries a week from people looking to switch from plastic to glass, and said sales of glass in traditional bottles had risen by around 30 per cent in the past two years.
Parker Daries in East London said enquiries since the start of the year had ‘gone bananas.’
Depot manager Paul Lough said: “We have seen a massive increase in January. It’s gone bananas. And I do think it is largely because of people trying to get away from plastic. I think the idea of going back to glass bottles and milk floats have captured people’s imagination.”
The company has a fleet of 25 milk floats, but until recently sales had been declining by between five and eight per cent a year.
Likewise Cotteswold Dairy, in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, said it had noticed an upsurge in interest in recent years.
Roseanne McEwan, brand development manager, said: “We have produced and bottled glass milk since my Grandfather started the business in 1938.
“11 per cent of our business is doorstep delivery but we also supply wholesale customer who deliver milk to the doorstep.
“When the supermarkets started selling milk, sales dropped. However over the last couple of years, we have noticed more people interested in a doorstep delivery and even over the last week, we have picked up 50 new calls.
“With all the recent news on the use of plastic, people are wanting milk in glass bottles as one way to help cut down their plastic consumption.”
And Acorn Dairy in Darlington said they had seen a health two per cent rise in glass bottle sales in January, with people looking to cut back on plastic.
Pensworth Dairy in Wiltshire also recently upgraded its glass bottle production facility after doubling turnover in recent years.
Milkmen first emerged in the 1860s with the advent of the railways, which allowed milk to be carried freshly and cheaply from farms into towns and cities. Originally it was wheeled between houses in a large churn.
By the early 1900s, milkmen were delivering glass bottles using horse and carts, sometimes three times a day, as there was little refrigeration. When most people began to buy fridges in the 1950s, the round switched to once-a-day.
There are estimated to be still around 5,000 milkmen left making daily deliveries in Britain.
Source: Telegraph
