An innovative reusable milk keg could see the average New Zealand café eliminate up to 10,000 single-use milk bottles a year.
The Udder Way officially launches in New Zealand today, ahead of World Milk Day – June 1, which this year focuses on how the dairy industry is reducing its environmental footprint.
The Tasmanian company has joined forces with Waikato owned and operated Green Valley Dairies, which is filling the reusable milk kegs in New Zealand with organic and non-organic milk.
Each The Udder Way keg holds 18 litres of milk and has a lifespan of at least eight years before being recycled and turned back into kegs. This allows the average café to eliminate 7000 to 10,000 milk bottles a year.
Green Valley Dairies general manager Mark Pulman says that the innovative milk kegs are unlike anything he has seen before and are a big win for the dairy industry, hospitality sector and the environment.
“This is the most exciting reusable packaging solution we have come across. It’s great to have an alternative option that’s specifically designed for both the dairy and food service industries, with all the relevant certifications. We’re also proud to be playing our part in helping our customers reduce their environmental footprint,” says Pulman.
The idea for the reusable milk kegs came to The Udder Way founder Ed Crick while he was running three cafes in Tasmania.
“We were going though almost 30,000 plastic milk bottles a year, which really concerned me. We were making the effort to use things like sustainable coffee cups and meanwhile our bins were overflowing with plastic bottles,” says Crick.
So, the former tradie started dreaming up ways to eliminate the need for single-use plastic milk bottles. In 2021, he launched The Udder Way in Australia, with the mission to eliminate 100 million single-use plastic milk bottles globally, per year.
“Two years on from launching our kegs in Australia, we’re now removing around 1.6 million milk bottles from waste a year. With more and more businesses coming on board every day on both sides of the Tasman, we anticipate that number to triple by the end of 2023,” says Crick.
Daily Bread is one New Zealand business which has signed on to use The Udder Way milk kegs.
“We’re always looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint, so the decision to change to The Udder Way milk kegs was a no brainer. It’s actually amazing! The kegs are easy to use, take up less space than milk bottles and create much less waste at the end of each day,” says Daily Bread manager Emily Hancock.
The Udder Way kegs can be connected to existing milk dispensing units or a simple tap system can be provided, allowing baristas to easily pour milk without the waste and clutter of plastic milk bottles.
For more information or to order milk in kegs, visit www.theudderway.com or www.gvd.co.nz
