We’re thrilled to be celebrating a significant milestone this month – five whole years of Schulz Organic Dairy Milk in Glass!
We can’t believe this journey started way back in 2017, when we started offering milk in returnable, refillable glass bottles exclusively at Farmers Markets across Victoria. The feedback? You wanted to get your hands on it more than once a week (and maybe closer to home too).
So in 2018, we launched our Pozible crowdfunding campaign, aiming to raise funds to upgrade our farm equipment to accommodate glass bottles – because despite being rewarding, the process wasn’t particularly efficient and more than a little fiddly (take a look at how we used to do it here).
The outpouring of support from our community was humbling, with almost 1200 people across Australia banding together to get behind our Pozible campaign.
Here’s some very kind words from day dot Milk in Glass lovers:
Back to the way it should be. What a huge undertaking. LEGENDS!”
— Sarah MacDonald
“Pledging again because this is an amazing agenda – only as a community can make this kinda change work – and I want to help make that change.”
— Elise Dartnell
“Woohoo! I've been buying Schulz Milk for a long time. The milk is awesome, will be even better without plastic. Excited to be part of this initiative to reduce waste. Well done Schulz team!”
— Sarah Dyer
With your support, we raised over $106,000, enabling us to actually deliver 5,000 glass bottles of organic milk per week to our suppliers – rather than our initial target of 3,000 per week!
In 2019 we finally launched into a range of fantastic retailers across Victoria, and in this first year, prevented 7.6 tonnes of plastic from entering landfill. Since then, your support has helped the Schulz Milk in Glass initiative save a huge 44 tonnes of plastic – that’s the same weight as a humpback whale!
Plus in 2023, we cracked a massive one million bottles sold!
We also continue to see the commitment of our wonderful customers through sales and returns, and although Covid-19 did see a drop in the rate of returns, we’re happy to say it continues to rise, with a phenomenal average return rate of 89% over the past 12 months. A quick reminder – our job on the other end is made much easier if your bottles are returned ‘naked’ (e.g. no lids, rings or labels) to your favourite retailer – click here for more information and FAQs.
We trialled a number of lid options as part of our research, from peel-back to solid aluminium and even steel! For now, our current plastic lids came out on top the best option.
Although all our bottle lids are made from recyclable plastic, many local councils across Australia do not accept them in home recycling.
So, we recommend checking with your council before putting our bottle lids in your recycling bin. Can’t recycle them in your area? You’ve got options.
Save them up and return them to be recycled at Alphington, Eltham and Coburg Farmers Markets.
Remember that one of the best ways to make change in your area is to get talking! Contact your local council to start the conversation about expanding recycling options – and ask your friends, family and neighbours to do the same.
Pass them onto an organisation doing good stuff with plastic! We’ve worked with the teams at Rethink Recycling and Lids4Kids.
If you know of a great organisation near you who upcycles lids, we’d love to hear from you!
The success of Milk in Glass simply could not have been achieved without all of you: the stockists, original Pozible pledgers, regular bottle filler-uppers and all the team at Schulz Organic Dairy. We appreciate every drop of effort you have put in to help spread the word!
So what’s next? The recent installation of new bottling machinery in the factory means a big bump in efficiency for us – which means more Milk in Glass heading out to our retailers!
We’re also continuing to explore options for improving the manufacturing and integrity of our glass bottles, together with new and innovative closure alternatives.
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