Best Buy: Picking the Right Milk Container

You go to the store to pick up some milk—a seemingly trivial task—only to find yourself confronted not just with cartons and plastic but with glass bottles as well. Coated cartons and plastics both use petroleum derivatives, but surely the weight of glass bottles means more gas is burned trucking them. When it comes to which is preferable—plastic, glass or cartons—the answer isn't straightforward.

*Energy (in kilowatt hours): Consumed in container production, shipping, cleaning, recycling and landfilling.

Add It Up

Where refillable, glass is your best choice for the energy expended and overall life-cycle costs. But skip those non-refillable glass bottles—they're energy hogs. Your second best choice? Readily recyclable plastic.

Don't have a cow? Here's what you can do:

Since refillable glass bottles are rarely sold in grocery stores, check www.localharvest.org for dairy farms in your area that provide this service.