Why Do Canadians Buy Their Milk In Bags?
Posted by Bucky in Home Life, tags: canadians, milk, milk in bags
I asked this age old question to my main man Canucklehead a few weeks ago. He gave me a very in-depth response.
Wow – people sure do find this interesting. For those who are wondering what we are talking about, you can see a picture HERE. The short answer is that not all of us do. That being said, it is an option and as someone who grew up on them, I actually prefer the bagged milk myself. I can only confirm that milk bags are available in Ontario, Quebec and BC- and I think I heard that they are NOT available in Manitoba and Quebec. It is worth mentioning that they are available quite a few places worldwide (see HERE), including Brazil, India, China and even California. Here in Ontario, (and the other places I’m sure) we do of course have both the cartons and, to a lesser degree, plastic bottles as well. The bags were actually adopted to reduce waste and other resources required to transport the milk. It does require a one-time purchase of a plastic pitcher that holds the individual bags and the one major complaint is when the cut on the corner is done improperly, it can result in a lot of spilt milk. The bags themselves are easy to sterilize and transport and some people even freeze their milk. (Blech.) While plastic does break down quite slowly, studies have shown that overall it is the most efficient way of packaging. As well, the fact that you buy such a large amount usually means savings. For better or worse, it seems that bagged milk has become a Canadian institution.
Buying milk in jugs is all that I have ever known. The fact that some people can get it in bags makes me chuckle. I guess living here in the states makes it all but impossible to acquire said bags of milk. Even though I find it funny, I would definitely buy milk in bags if it were offered to me. Having a house full of milk drinkers means that most of our trash bags are filled with jugs. The bags of milk would cut down on our use of trash bags, which means less trips out the curb for me.
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Canucklehead.ca – offering useless information to the internets since 2007. Gee- I liked to take advantage of this newfound fame but I’m gonna go ahead and assume that milkbags.com is already taken. Cheers Bucky!
Bags of milk? My mind is officially blown. Officially.
Mr. Fabulouss last blog post..Fabby in a Strange Land pt. 1
If you buy milk in a plastic jug in Ontario, there’s a 25 cent depost fee. Helps keep all those plastic jugs out of the landfill.
Me, I buy bags of milk.
Actually, milkbags.com appears to be not taken!
milkbags.com sounds like it should be a porn site….
It really should be.
Well, I live in Iowa, and local gas stations used to carry bags of milk. I’m not sure if they still do, since I don’t buy milk there, but they also had orange juice in bags.
We used to buy bagged milk here in Calgary, but that was many years ago, and you just don’t see it here any more. I think it’s more an Eastern thing, along with your funny-looking margarine.