Refillable glass milk bottles
In cooperation with Greenpeace Austria, Austria’s largest dairy company Berglandmilch introduced a refillable one-litre glass milk bottle in February 2020 with the aim of reducing packaging waste.
Customers pay a deposit of EUR 0.22 cents per bottle, which they get back when returning the bottles. Instead of being seen as an inconvenience, the change in packaging actually resulted in an increase in sales.
Berglandmilch invested around EUR 8 million to convert its packaging sites in Aschbach in Lower Austria and Wörgl in Tyrol, introducing an additional glass-filling plant, a washing facility and warehouses for glass bottles.
Other reusable products were planned for 2020, such as a half-litre reusable bottle, low-fat milk in reusable bottles as well as yoghurt in reusable glasses. Berglandmilch fills organic milk for its trading partners REWE and Spar in the same returnable glass bottles, in addition to its own Schärdinger Berghof Milch and Tirol Milch. The reusable milk bottles can be returned via the deposit return machines of trading partners throughout Austria.
