# How do you prefer your milk to be packaged? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2018, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505 "2018-02-24T22:51:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505/41 "2018-02-28T02:59:14Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Well, some of this has already been discussed upthread, but to answer your points… > The usual bag sizes are around 1⅓ litres, so you’ve hit a gallon after three bags, not four. The plastic bags are very thin; even three or four of them together weigh much less than a thick plastic jug. Having to produce and ship a lower mass of packaging is presumably better for the environment. And the bags are also much more flexible, so their total volume when discarded will be much smaller than that of a crushed plastic jug. (Not that you should need to be “throwing away” either of them—don’t most communities nowadays provide recycling for plastic?) > Clean the what now? The bags fit into a reusable plastic pitcher, which the milk itself never touches. You don’t need to clean it. You probably do want to rinse out the empty bags before recycling them, though this is also true of glass bottles, plastic jugs, and cartons. > This is true. If you use the milk slowly enough that it spoils, you could always use a reusable clip for the opening. This is no more inconvenient than capping a carton or bottle. > I don’t see how. See also [post #17](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20811073&postcount=17). Fair enough. I vaguely recall seeing a video about milk bags and jugs, and the jugs there had large plastic needles in them to puncture the bags, so the bags fill the jug. That seems like a hassle, always having a dirty jug to clean, and dumping it from the bag into the jug seems unnecessary. But if it stays in the bag that shouldn’t be an issue. I guess its just a cultural thing. I’ve been drinking milk out of plastic or cardboard containers my whole life. Gallon, half gallon, quart, pint, half pint, etc. (90% of the time, gallon plastic jugs though). Switching to something different would be strange, and I don’t think I’d notice any real benefit to switching. But I do like the idea of a resealable cap so because of that I think I’d stick with the plastic jugs. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505/42 "2018-02-28T03:02:41Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Until reading it here on the Dope years ago, I had no idea that bags weren’t ubiquitous. Oh sure, I’ve seen jugs, and cartons elsewhere, but I’ve also seen those in Ontario too. > > But by a really long shot bags are the way to go here. They’re light, recyclable, and a gallon comes in three separately sealed bags. I live in the US, I’ve never seen a bag of milk in person. I didn’t know they existed until maybe 3 years ago. I think I found out about it because I was watching a youtube video about tourists to Asia being confused because they sold milk in bags, and not in containers. Everything I’ve seen is plastic jugs or cardboard cartons (they sell powdered milk and tins of milk in the bakery isle from what I’ve seen, the jugs and cartons are in the dairy isle). I don’t see glass bottles or bags at the grocery store. Naturally, if you go to an international grocery store you may see them (maybe, milk has a very short shelf life), but it is pretty much all plastic and cardboard here. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505/43 "2018-02-28T03:52:39Z")
^ Those cartons haven’t been cardboard for decades: they too are plastic. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505/44 "2018-02-28T10:14:01Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > As for bagged milk, it’s not correct to say that bagged milk is Canadian. Bags of milk are unknown here in western Canada. Maybe nowadays, but they definitely had them when I was growing up (in Regina). My parents usually bought cartons but my grandparents always bought bags. I don’t remember seeing them after the early 1990s, so that might be when they stopped selling them. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505/45 "2018-02-28T11:41:42Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > ^ Those cartons haven’t been cardboard for decades: they too are plastic. Tetra type cartons are typically plastic-coated cardboard - (it makes them hard to recycle). There are carton-style bottles that are entirely plastic, but they appear to be in the minority, at least in my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Didactylos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Didactylos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didactylos)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505/46 "2018-02-28T11:56:33Z")
Cartons provided they’re the ones with screw-on caps, not the fold-out glued-on spout type. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2018, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505/47 "2018-02-28T13:26:36Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > ^ Those cartons haven’t been cardboard for decades: they too are plastic. What, even the kind **Didactylos** refers to, with the folding spout? I’m pretty sure that those are made of cardboard coated with some sort of plastic or wax. Granted, I haven’t seen one of those for a long time, so maybe you’re right that they’re no longer produced. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-prefer-your-milk-to-be-packaged/809505.md?page=2)