Crying Over Plastic Milk

They say that you can judge a book by its cover, so can you judge a milk company by its carton?

“Green caps for green energy. A plus for the planet. Organic. Did you know that every drop of Silk is powered by clean, renewable wind energy.” The Silk web site is awash in green tips: a carbon calculator, virtual green house, little thing you can do to make a difference. Judging by their words, it seems as if Silk soymilk is the greenest milk around.

But wait. What is that? Oh no, it’s a plastic spout on a paper milk carton. What could have been composted easily is now a dreaded hybrid. A fused mess of plastic plus paper.

It is a Tetra Pak. You can’t compost it without taking off the plastic top. And how many people are going to do that? I’ve tried it and it is not exactly the easiest thing to do – to cut out that plastic spout. And this is the greenest milk in America?

I’ve wanted to write this post for a while but resisted. I sent Silk a few emails asking for an explanation and encouraging them to switch to an easily-recyclable milk carton without a plastic spout. No answer the first time. No answer the second time. This all culminated today when I visited my apartment building’s recycling and composting area. I opened up the blue bin and came face to face with an empty red Silk milk carton with a plastic spout. Here I am, in all my plastic-paper hybrid monster glory! Hence this post.

On the Silk web site, it specifically says “Silk Soymilk cartons can be recycled after removing the plastic screw cap.”

On the Tetra Pak web site, it has the audacity to call its products “environmentally-sound” and to say that “Tetra Pak’s cartons are among the most sustainable liquid food packages on the market today.”

Hmmm, what happened to the old-fashioned milk carton made from recycled paper. What if we capitalized it as in the Old-Fashioned Milk Carton. Let’s go retro and green. Let’s bring it back.

So, organic milk companies, please stop the hypocrisy and get your packaging in line with your liquids. If Clover Farms (Happy Cows) can do it, so can you!  Milk does a body good, but plastic milk does an Earth bad.

How To Remove the Plastic Spout.  Many of you have sent me recommendations on how to remove the plastic spout before composting, very helpful, thank you!  Currently I am unfolding the entire top of the carton, rinsing it out, and then cutting out the plastic spout. I may be stuck in a rut, as some of you have suggested that one can simply pop the spout out.

Comments

[alchesay]

I just wanted to let you know that theres no need to cut it out. if you open the very top of the container like the older fashion ones where you just push open the spout you can very easily pull out the placetic cap from the inside, no cuting needed, this way you get out all the plastic, give it a try.