Milk in Glass: Four Year Report

This year, we’re celebrating four years of Milk in Glass!

Our Milk in Glass story began all the way back in 2017, when we started offering milk in returnable, refillable glass bottles at Farmers Markets across Victoria. Then next year, we launched our Pozible crowdfunding campaign, with the aim to raise funds for equipment that would allow us to release 3000 glass bottles per week to retailers. Thanks to a groundswell of amazing support, we overshot our target – and Milk in Glass became a reality!

In 2019, we launched into a range of fantastic retailers and since then – with the ongoing support of loyal customers – we’ve saved 35.97 tonnes of plastic through our Milk in Glass efforts!

It is truly amazing to see our Milk in Glass in so many sustainably-minded stores and cafés across Victoria, with many of these locations also adopting our Milk on Tap program. Here, we partnered with legendary Tassie company The Udder Way to deliver instant refills of our Full Cream and Low Fat Milk to customers – and work towards eliminating single use plastics in the dairy industry and beyond.

We also continue to see the commitment of our wonderful customers through sales and returns, and although Covid-19 did see an understandable drop in the rate of returns, we’re happy to say it returned to 85% over the past 12 months. 

And how’s this for a milestone – we’re on track to hit one million bottles sold by the end of this year!

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!

We’re so proud of these results – but we think we can go bigger (and better). 

We’re looking to invest in a number of projects to significantly improve Milk in Glass production, including investing in a reconditioned foil cap to seal our existing bottles (and reduce plastic usage!), an improved semi-automatic bottle and keg washer in partnership with the legends at Rhima, and to make some modifications to our glass bottle design to increase its lifecycle! 

If you’d be interested in learning more about how you can help us reach our goals to further reduce waste in the dairy industry, click here and enter your details.

We Now Offer Milk on Tap Across Melbourne!

As you know, we are always on the lookout for new ideas and partners to help us on our sustainability journey.

And we have some exciting news to share!

This month we partnered with legendary Tassie company, The Udder Way, to deliver our Organic Full Cream and Low Fat Milk direct to customers, taking another step towards our mission to eliminate single-use plastic milk bottles from our business, and your lives!

Australian designed and made, The Udder Way Keg System is a convenient and reusable milk storage and handling unit designed for food service and retail. Each unit holds 18L of milk, and allows for refrigerated storage and dispensing of milk from an installed tap ensuring fresh and free-flowing milk, without the waste and clutter involved with conventional single-use plastic bottles and crates.

We are currently the sole milk supplier to food service and retailers using The Udder Way Keg System across Victoria. 

You will be able to visit retailers such as The Leaf Store in Elwood or Hawthorn and pour your own organic milk from a purpose built retail dispensing unit, using our 1L Milk in Glass bottles. Participating cafés will also have the convenience of organic milk on tap, with direct access to fresh, free-flowing milk for lattes, cappuccinos, milkshakes and more.

 Click here to find a retailer or café near you.

Partnering with The Udder Way is one of many steps in our sustainability journey, says our boss Simon.

“Since introducing Milk in Glass three years ago we have diverted approximately 26.9 tonnes of plastic from landfill. Limiting plastic waste isn’t cheap or easy but we know there is a lot of support out there for sustainable processes and packaging.” 

“Collaborating with innovative businesses like The Udder Way takes us another step closer to eliminating single-use plastics and fulfilling our sustainability goals.”

The Udder Way Keg was created by Tassie café owner Ed Crick, who developed the system out of a frustration that over 500 million single-use plastic bottles are used every year, with less than half being recycled.

“We have partnered with Schulz Organic Dairy because we share a similar vision and mission.  Each of our Kegs eliminates the need for 7,000 single-use plastic bottles over an 8-10 year lifespan before being recycled.”

“We are thrilled to announce, due to our partnership with Schulz Organic Dairy, we now have enough Kegs in rotation that sets a cycle in place to eliminate the use of one million single-use plastic bottles each year, for the next 8-10 years,” says Ed.

Ed Crick, founder of The Udder Way.

If you are interested in installing The Udder Way Keg System into your business or would like further information please click here or email us at milkinglass@schulzorganicdairy.com.au