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Up until around the 1940's when glass became very expensive kids drank milk from glass bottles instead of paper cartons.

The idea back then was that the glass bottles were heavier and were expensive to clean, sanitize, and then refill. So the paper milk carton was used because it of course was disposable. Remember that was before all the talk about recycling and not putting so much into landfills.

But what if they did not? What if kids today all were drinking milk from refillable glass bottles?

Now why do I bring this up? My kids school just got a big salute for their "radical" environmental idea where the kids made sure all undrunk milk was drained from their milk cartons before they were thrown away, saving tons of weight and volume every year from going into landfills. But that got me thinking that really the refillable glass milk container is actually better for the environment because milk cartons require so much raw materials (wood, parafin, bleaching agents, paint, etc...) and rarely get recycled.

Might that be a boon to the glass industry? Might people get so used to drinking from refillable glass bottles they use them elsewhere? Might we still have people drinking milk from home in glass bottles and then returning them for deposits?

What do you all think?

Also for the non_Americans, do kids drink milk with school lunches and if so, does it come in glass bottles or paper cartons?
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