House v. Plastic Part II: Milk

We have two little kids. When I think about what fills our recycling bin the most it's plastic gallon milk jugs. Seemed like a simple thing to remedy but kind of got confusing after reading about glass versus cardboard cartons on Slate. Turns out the glass bottles have plastic lids--in addition to being heavy--which affects the amount of energy needed for transportation.  



Glass Option: Before reading the Slate article I assumed glass was best, we brought home a gallon Twin Brooks Creamery milk in 2 glass bottles from the Food Coop on Capitol Hill (In my mind this will always be Madison Market). You return the bottles for reuse each time you need more. That seemed simple, but kind of expensive although I'm realizing I previously had little idea of what we were paying. Twin Brooks milk was $7.78 for the gallon of milk (2 half gallons), and $3.90 for the 1X bottle deposit for both bottles. Twin Brooks Farms is 102 miles from Seattle. Note, the bottles have think plastic tops.

Cardboard: Then there is milk from Smith Brothers Farms. Smith Brothers Farms is somewhere near Renton, which is less than 15 miles away -- but later I realized their organic milk is from Oregon. One of the articles main concerns about the cardboard cartons was that sometimes they are not recyclable which was a surprise to me.  Smith Brothers Farms customer service responded with this information:

"Our cartons are lined with low density polyethylene (same as they mention in the article) and they are made from wood fiber that is sustainably sourced (certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative). The cartons are both recyclable and compostable – you can find recycling facilities here, but I also checked the City of Seattle’s website for recycling and verified that you can recycle milk cartons there.

Our organic milk is processed and packaged by Sunshine Dairy in Portland, since we are not certified organic at our plant in Kent. They process their milk using the same low temperature method that we use, and all milk is sourced from local, organic Oregon dairy farms. Our milk at Smith Brothers is sourced through farms that are members of the Northwest Dairy Association, which is a co-op of farms in the Pacific Northwest. Much of the milk we use now comes from farms in Grant County where we sold our dairy cows back in 2006 after federal and state regulation made it too expensive for our company to both own production animals and own processing facilities. In total, I believe we typically source from 2-4 farms at a time – the specific farms can vary, though, depending on the quality of milk that we receive.

There are a few main differences between our organic milk and conventional milk, aside from the certification. One is that the organically raised cows are given access to pastures for grazing for about six months out of the year (grazing season is roughly from April – October in Oregon where the cows are); conventional regulations do not require the cows to be given pasture time. Another key difference is that organic dairy cows are given certified organic feed, which is guaranteed to be herbicide and pesticide-free, whereas that is also not regulated with the feed given to conventionally raised cows. A last difference is that if an organic cow needs to be given antibiotics it is taken out of dairy production completely; if a conventional cow is given antibiotics it is removed from dairy production until there are no more antibiotics in its system, and then it is allowed to go back into the dairy stream."

We are either going to get the Sunshine Dairy milk (from Portland) delivered to us or I'll find it in a grocery store that carries it.  Or, I'll look for any non-plastic fully recycle-able option. It looks like Organic Valley comes from either California or Idaho as the closest farmers and they also have plastic spouts. 

Meanwhile, I noticed Spud (Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery), a home delivery service that delivers a lot more than produce.  This interests me . . .

House v. Plastic Part I: Sparkling Water

I'm calling this Part I because plastic is my family's first bad habit to kick. (Why? Because plastic typically does not biodegrade and once discarded it's just hanging around our planet maybe indefinitely. And unlike glass or metal, recycled plastic has limited applications after it's initial use. But I don't want to get depressed!)

It's easier for me to start with talking about an old plastic bad habit that I already addressed, even if a baby step. It's also a change that doesn't really involve sacrifice so feels like an easy way to ease into eliminating plastic use. Two years ago, I used to purchase one or more 2-liter plastic bottles of Talking Rain sparkling water almost every time I stepped into a grocery store filling up my eco-do-gooder canvas shopping bags. I would get maybe like 4 a week or > 400 large plastic bottles a year from this product alone.  I'd think nothing of draining a bottle when the contents got flat and chucking it into the recycling bin with no consideration for it's permanence.  During this period, I probably simultaneously looked on at others in horror -- and in judgment -- for being seen walking around with plastic bottles of water in smaller single-use sizes. But in hindsight, I was in affect just as reckless.  I'm not sure there is a difference at all in fact.  

This device changed everything:

Instead of just drinking still water which might be the real solution, we invested in a soda maker.  Specifically a SodaStream soda maker which lets you make basically an unlimited amount of sparkling water or flavored soda at home inexpensively.  Here's what the manufacturer's site says about the environmental impact - for what it's worth .There is no batteries or electricity involved. I use my SodaStream almost daily to make club soda and add just a little lemon juice. You carbonate the water with CO2 from a an aluminum cylinder, or "carbonator" that comes with your maker.  You can exchange the empty CO2 cylinders for full ones. 

In my opinion, the most convenient and efficient place to do this in Seattle is at Bartell Drugs for ~$15. (I've tried it at Crate & Barrel and they had to find a Manager to figure out what I was talking about.) I exchange our CO2 about every 2 months.  It's nice to know that Bartell Drugs is a local, albeit large, family owned business based in Seattle. 

You can buy at Crate & Barrel and Amazon and I've seen them at Costco in the SODO. There are for sure less expensive versions.

I found it interesting that according to wikipedia, 20% of Swedish households own a SodaStream.  

Here's what the CO2 cylinder look like:

Ideally there wouldn't be the plastic seal on the full canisters that needs to be broken off and discarded upon each first use.  Ideally the "carbonating" bottles would not be plastic but instead stainless steel. But for the time being our house has larger issues to work through before getting hard-core on eliminating this pleasure.

Student of Zero Waste

I used to feel sort of eco self-righteous. We live in a modern, energy-efficient home. I drive a Prius. And, over the years I've become a recycling and composting freak. But it has become clear that being eco-conscious in your mind by filling your recycling bin weekly and using a travel mug --most of the time-- is an entirely different mindset than actually reducing waste and energy consumption in the first place as a habit. Our family is going to see if we can revise our lifestyle and save money too. I want to write about it to track our progress, and be Seattle-specific to learn from and hopefully help other people in my own city.