A modern British milk bottle owned by Dairy CrestPint and half gallon returnable glass bottles
Glass milk bottles are glass bottles used for milk. They are reusable and returnable - used mainly for doorstep delivery of fresh milk by milkmen. Once customers have finished the milk, empty bottles are expected to be rinsed and left on the doorstep for collection, or rinsed bottles may be returned to a participating retail store. Bottle sizes vary depending on region, but common sizes include pint, quart or litre.
Before the emergence of milk bottles, milkmen would fill the customer's jugs. For many collectors, milk bottles carry a nostalgic quality of a bygone era. The most prized milk bottles are embossed or pyro-glazed (painted) with the names of dairies on them, which were used for home delivery of milk so that the milk bottles could find their way back to their respective dairies.
Extending from the 1860s to the 1890s, there were several experimental "jars" that were not patented but were used to carry milk. The milk jar of the Tuthill Milk Company/Tuthill's Dairy of Unionville is an example of one of these early jars that features a ground lip and a base baring the mark of the pontil used to craft it. Other early milk jars during this time include the Mackworth "Pure Jersey Cream" crockery jar, the Manorfield Stock Farm jar, the Manor, and the Pennsylvania[clarification needed] wide-mouth jar. In 1878, George Henry Lester patented the first glass jar intended to hold milk.[2]
This jar featured a glass lid that was held on the jar by a metal clamp. In the same year that Lester invented his milk jar, the Brooklyn milk dealer Alex Campbell was credited with first selling milk in experimental glass bottles. These bottles did not resemble common milk bottles.
Five different Abbotts Dairies, Philadelphia, PA milk/cream bottles (c1920s-1960s)A reusable half-pint glass milk bottle sealed with a disposable cardboard cap opened by pulling on a flap lifted up with a pointed opening tool
Lewis P. Whiteman held the first patent for a glass milk bottle with a small glass lid and a tin clip.[3] Following this, the next earliest patent was for a milk bottle with a dome style tin cap and was granted on September 23, 1884, to Whiteman's brother, Abram V. Whiteman.[4] The Whiteman brothers produced milk bottles based on these specifications at the Warren Glass Works Company in Cumberland, Maryland, and sold them through their New York sales office.
The Original Thatcher is one of the most desirable milk bottles for collectors. The patent for the glass dome lid was dated April 27, 1886. There are several variations of this early milk bottle and many reproductions. During this time period, many types of bottles were being used to hold and distribute milk. These include a pop bottle type with a wire clamp, used by the Chicago Sterilized Milk Company, Sweet Clover, and others. Fruit jars were also used, but only the Cohansey Glass Manufacturing plant made them with dairy names embossed.
The Commonsense Milk Bottle with the first cap seat was developed as an economical means for sealing a reusable milk bottle by the Thatcher Manufacturing Company around 1900. Most bottles produced after this time have a cap seat.
By the 1920s, glass milk bottles had become the norm in the UK after slowly being introduced from the US before World War I.[5]
Milk bottles before the 1930s were round in shape. In 1935 slender-neck bottles were introduced in the UK.[5] In the 1940s, a square squat bottle became the more popular style. Milk bottles since the 1930s have used pyroglaze or ACL (Applied Color Label) to identify the bottles. Before the 1930s, names were embossed on milk bottles using a slug plate. The name was impressed on the slug plate, then it was inserted into the mold used to make the bottle – the result was the embossed name on the bottle. In 1980 a new bottle, nicknamed "dumpy," was introduced in the UK where it remains the standard now.[5]
During the Second World War misuse or hoarding of milk bottles was made illegal in the United Kingdom. 2.5 million bottles were rescued. Milk Vessels Recovery Limited was founded in 1920 and engaged in recovery of aluminium bottle tops.[6]
From the 1960s onward in the United States, with improvements in shipping and storage materials, glass bottles have almost completely been replaced with either LDPE coated paper cartons or recyclable HDPE plastic containers (such as square milk jugs), depending on the brand. These paper and plastic containers are lighter, cheaper and safer to both manufacture and ship to consumers.[7]
In 1975, 94% of milk in the UK was in glass bottles, but as of 2012 this number was down to 4%.[5]
There are concerns among a few Americans as to the quality and safety of industrialized milk. The local non-homogenized milk industry has seen a popular resurgence in certain markets in the US in the last decade or so. Because of this, the use of glass bottles in local or regional, non-industrial milk distribution has become an increasingly common sight.
Chronology
1880 – British milk bottles were first produced by the Express Dairy Company, these were delivered by horse-drawn carts. The first bottles used a porcelain stopper top held on by wire. Lewis Whiteman patents the glass milk bottle with a glass lid.
1884 – Dr. Thatcher invents the glass milk container in New York. These were initially sealed with wooden plugs, which proved unsuccessful, and were soon replaced by glass stoppers.[8]
1894 – Anthony Hailwood developed the milk pasteurisation process to create sterilized milk, which could be safely stored for longer periods.
1920 – Advertisements began to appear on milk bottles. A sand-blasting technique was used to etch them on the glass.
mid-1950s – Paperboard tops were deemed unhygienic and banned in some locations. Delivery by horse-drawn carts was still common.[citation needed]
early-1990s – The advertising largely disappeared with the introduction of infrared bottle scanners designed to check cleanliness.
Present day
In some locations around the world, different colored tops on milk bottles indicate the fat content. Unpasteurized is often green-topped. However other colour designations may be used by some dairies. Bottles may also be marked, stamped or embossed with the name of the dairy.
In the United Kingdom, the aluminium foil tops on glass milk bottles are normally coloured:[10]
Historically, other colors such as Pink for Ultra-High Temperature (UHT) processed milk, were also used.[11] Blue was previously used for so termed, 'sterilized' milk.[11]
Modern dairies may also use refillable plastic bottles, as well as plastic bottle tops. The colour coding for plastic milk bottle tops can be different from that of glass bottles. In the United Kingdom, the plastic tops on plastic milk bottles are normally coloured:
In the United Kingdom, milk sold to the door comes in imperial pints. However, sterilized milk sold to the door typically comes in 500 ml glass bottles, which are 'non-returnable' and have colour coded lids that match the colour codes normally seen on plastic bottles. Milk which is sold in returnable containers, such as glass bottles, are not required to be labelled in metric units.[13][14] Milk which is sold in pre-packaged containers that are non-returnable must be labelled in metric units. In the supermarkets, bottled milk mostly comes in a pint or multiples of a pint, and are also labelled in metric equivalents. Some retail store sales of milk in glass bottles is available in certain regions of the United Kingdom with a bottle deposit.
With lower milk consumption, milk in Hong Kong is sold in both glass and plastic bottles as well as in cartons. The glass milk bottles are sold in supermarkets, convenience stores and in small restaurants. The glass milk bottle carries a deposit of 1 Hong Kong dollar. More commonly available in the market in glass milk bottles are Kowloon Dairy and Trappist Dairy with different shaped glass milk bottles with both in school bottle size.
Orange juice and other fruit juices are also sold in doorstep deliveries in the same style of bottle used for milk. Typically these have an aluminium foil top colour coded to indicate the flavour[citation needed].
In some countries (e.g. Estonia and some provinces of Canada), it is common to buy milk in a milk bag.
While the proportion of sales in milk bags in the United Kingdom is quite low, semi-skimmed milk is sold in bags by Dairy Crest/Milk and More, and in Sainsbury's supermarket it is available in whole-milk, semi-skimmed-milk and skimmed-milk options.[citation needed] However supermarket availability is limited to larger branches.
School milk bottles
A primary school child drinking milk out of a glass bottle with a straw piercing the aluminium foil cap
Small third-of-a-pint glass milk bottles were developed in the United Kingdom during the mid-20th century in order to supply milk to children attending primary school. They were the most common form of packaging for school milk in the early 1970s, but have been gradually superseded by third pint cartons and plastic bottles. Leicester, South Tyneside,[15] Leeds, and Kirklees[16] were the last local authorities where school milk was supplied in third of a pint glass bottles until the dairies ceased using them in 2007.
Children usually drank their milk using a straw inserted into the bottle.
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modulating components in milk contribute to milk immunity. Early-lactation milk, which is called colostrum, contains antibodies that strengthen the immune system and thus reduce the risk of many diseases. Milk contains many nutrients, including protein and lactose.
The pint is a unit of volume or capacity in both the imperial and United States customary measurement systems. In both of those systems it is traditionally one eighth of a gallon. The British imperial pint is about 20% larger than the American pint because the two systems are defined differently. Almost all other countries have standardized on the metric system, so although some of them still also have traditional units called pints, the volume varies by regional custom.
Ultra-high temperature processing (UHT), ultra-heat treatment, and ultra-pasteurization is a food processing technology that sterilizes a liquid food by heating the food for two to five seconds to a temperature greater than 140 °C (284 °F) to kill bacterial endospores. In the production of food products, UHT processing is applied to milk and milk products, and to the production of fruit juices, soy milk, wine, savoury canned foods, and honey. UHT milk was first developed in the 1960s and became generally available for consumption in the 1970s. The heat used during the UHT process can cause Maillard browning and change the taste and smell of dairy products. An alternative process is flash pasteurization, in which the milk is heated to 72 °C (162 °F) for at least fifteen seconds.
A bottle cap or bottle top is a closure for the top opening of a bottle. A cap is sometimes colorfully decorated with the logo of the brand of contents. Plastic caps are used for plastic bottles, while metal with plastic backing is used for glass; plastic caps are commonly made from polyethylene or polypropylene, while metal caps are usually either steel or aluminum. Plastic caps may have a pour spout. Flip-Top caps like Flapper closures provide controlled dispensing of dry products. Caps for plastic bottles are often made of a different type of plastic from the bottle.
A reusable bottle is a bottle that can be reused, as in the case as by the original bottler or by end-use consumers. Reusable bottles have grown in popularity by consumers for both environmental and health safety reasons. Reusable bottles are one example of reusable packaging.
A carton is a box or container usually made of liquid packaging board, paperboard and sometimes of corrugated fiberboard. Many types of cartons are used in packaging. Sometimes a carton is also called a box.
Container-deposit legislation is any law that requires the collection of a monetary deposit on beverage containers at the point of sale and/or the payment of refund value to the consumers. When the container is returned to an authorized redemption center, or retailer in some jurisdictions, the deposit is partly or fully refunded to the redeemer. It is a deposit-refund system.
A Mason jar, also known as a canning jar or fruit jar, is a glass jar used in home canning to preserve food. It was named after American tinsmith John Landis Mason, who patented it in 1858. The jar's mouth has a screw thread on its outer perimeter to accept a metal ring or "band". The band, when screwed down, presses a separate stamped steel disc-shaped lid against the jar's rim.
The bottle scraper is a Dutch kitchen tool similar to a small spatula. It is designed to scrape the contents of long bottles that would be impossible to reach with other kitchen tools. Although the tool is sold in Norway and has even been described in some accounts as having originated there, it was introduced in the Netherlands around 1954 by a Dutch family-owned company Tijger Plastics NV founded in 1950 and nowadays operating as Coram NV. The bottle scraper was patented on 31 March 1967 and it is cited as a quintessentially Dutch tool as well as an example of Dutch thrift.
A glass bottle is a bottle made from glass. Glass bottles can vary in size considerably, but are most commonly found in sizes ranging between about 200 millilitres and 1.5 litres. Common uses for glass bottles include food condiments, soda, liquor, cosmetics, pickling and preservatives; they are occasionally also notably used for the informal distribution of notes. These types of bottles are utilitarian and serve a purpose in commercial industries.
Skimmed milk, or skim milk, is made when all the milkfat is removed from whole milk. It tends to contain around 0.1% fat.
Plastic milk containers are plastic containers for storing, shipping and dispensing milk. Plastic bottles, sometimes called jugs, have largely replaced glass bottles for home consumption. Glass milk bottles have traditionally been reusable while light-weight plastic bottles are designed for single trips and plastic recycling.
A milk bag is a plastic bag that contains milk. Usually one of the corners is cut off to allow for pouring, and the bag is stored in a pitcher or jug.
Home canning or bottling, also known colloquially as putting up or processing, is the process of preserving foods, in particular, fruits, vegetables, and meats, by packing them into glass jars and then heating the jars to create a vacuum seal and kill the organisms that would create spoilage.
There are ten states in the United States with container deposit legislation, popularly called "bottle bills" after the Oregon Bottle Bill, the first such legislation that was passed.
Ecologic Brands Inc. is a United States company that specializes in creating eco-friendly packaging solutions for consumer products. The products are made from sustainable materials and are designed to be recyclable or compostable. The company also provides branding and marketing services to help companies promote their environmentally conscious products.
Bottles are able to be recycled and this is generally a positive option. Bottles are collected via kerbside collection or returned using a bottle deposit system. Currently just over half of plastic bottles are recycled globally. About 1 million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and only about 50% are recycled.
GreenBottle Ltd was the manufacturer of sustainable, paper-based liquids packaging. In 2017, Ecologic Brands Inc.,based in Manteca California, purchased the assets of the former GreenBottle.
Reusable packaging is manufactured of durable materials and is specifically designed for multiple trips and extended life. A reusable package or container is "designed for reuse without impairment of its protective function." The term returnable is sometimes used interchangeably but it can also include returning packages or components for other than reuse: recycling, disposal, incineration, etc. Typically, the materials used to make returnable packaging include steel, wood, polypropylene sheets or other plastic materials.
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