A Brief History of Home Milk Delivery Service

Are you looking for a home milk delivery service in your local area? We’re going to take you on a trip down memory lane with some history of home milk delivery. It seems like an entirely different time now, when the milkman would arrive early in the morning, before the sun came up. Imagine the faint sound of the glass milk bottles clinking together as he set them down upon your doorstep.

It was an idyllic time, looking back, but that does not mean that it was a time never to return again.

Now, there has been a resurgence of drinking milk in glass bottles. We even sell glass milk bottles wholesale for dairy farms and a variety of other uses. And back then, when milk delivery was part of a daily routine, the most prized milk bottles were painted or embossed with the names of the dairy on them.

Origin of the Glass Milk Bottle

Let’s take a look at how home milk delivery started:

The first home milk deliveries occurred in 1785 in rural Vermont
The first glass milk bottle was patented in 1874 in the United States
In the 1920s advertisements began to appear on milk bottles, etched on the glass using a sandblasting technique

Vintage glass bottles—milk, wine, beer, soda included—have now become collectors items. But glass bottles are still being decorated today.

You knew who was delivering your milk and you knew exactly where and what farm your milk was coming from. Today, we have become so alienated and far removed from the simplest ideas.

So Why Did Home Milk Delivery Disappear?

Origins of the Milk Glass Bottle. Stanpac. In the early 1950s, reliable power refrigeration replaced iceboxes and milk delivery service went into decline. Additionally, according to a BBC News article, “By the 1990s, the deregulation of the British milk industry and the decision by supermarkets to sell milk—cheaply—in plastic containers changed everything.”

Milk prams pulled by horses were first used to transport the milk before automation
In the 1930s there was an increased prevalence of battery electric vehicles used to deliver milk known as “milk floats”
1960s onward glass bottles have almost completely been replaced with coated paper cartons or high-density polyethylene

The idea was to make our lives easier, buying milk was made to be supposedly more convenient and less expensive. What we didn’t realize is that all of that would come at a cost. We no longer have the safety in knowing where our milk comes from and how it is processed. We give it to our children and drink it ourselves without much thought.

However, there are concerns among some Americans as to the quality and safety of industrialized milk. Because of this, the use of glass bottles in local or regional, non-industrial milk distribution has helped start a revival.

Of course concerns about the environmental impact of mass plastic and cardboard packaging consumption during a time when global warming cannot be ignored makes glass bottles a wiser choice once again.

Leaving out “empties” represents many people’s first understanding of the concept of recycling

Because we have gone so far in the other direction, people are now finding their way back to that time and those values. And that doesn’t necessarily mean buying milk is more time consuming and expensive. Just the opposite. Buying milk has been made easier with the Internet and those local dairy farmers still exist.

Why not help the local dairy farmer; in return they will give you back the comfort of knowing what you’re drinking and exactly where it came from. Local milk goes from the farm to table in a short period of time, often under 24 hours. This quick turnaround results in an increased shelf life, and fresher, tastier milk.

When transporting those glass bottles was expensive because of weight is now more a problem of how far the milk you drink from the grocery store comes. How many miles it has travelled is the concern environmentally, economically and even the quality of milk—just think how different the milk itself is after being processed and transported.

Milk has a more natural taste when it is stored in glass bottles.

It’s clear that it’s not just nostalgia that is bringing milk in glass bottles back. It’s an investment for the future of your children and the world we live in today.