Photo by Chelsea Phillips.
The time to start crying over spilled milk is NOW. According to researchers from the University of Edinburgh, wasted milk in the U.K. creates the equivalent of 110,000 tons of CO2 every year. That’s equivalent to the emissions from 20,000 cars.
U.K. residents throw out nearly 400,000 tons of milk per year, and because of the emissions produced by dairy farming, that unwanted milk has a pretty big carbon footprint. If people bought only the amount of milk they needed, the resulting drop in production would be like taking 20,000 cars off the road.
Of course, milk producers (and I mean dairy farmers, not female mammals) are going to do everything they can to make sure you overbuy. Hell, even if we all started, like, bringing our 24-ounce reusable glass containers to the bulk milk store every couple of days for refilling, dairy farmers would probably keep overproducing and just punish us by, like, leaving flaming bags of whipped cream on our doorsteps. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on your milk consumption, and trying to buy no more than you use. If you end up with extra, maybe you can upcycle it into a butter sculpture or something instead of pouring it down the drain.
