The equivalent of 2 billion 1-litre single-use plastic bottles of milk are used and discarded in Australia each year - it’s an issue that needs some urgent redress. As a milk producer, we no longer wanted to contribute to this mess. We need to find a better way. We've been trialling our 1-litre organic milk in returnable, refillable glass bottles at Farmers’ Markets, and the response has been overwhelming. It's time we scale this thing up, to make our milk in returnable glass more widely available. 

We'd welcome your help. The more funds we raise, the more milk we can bottle in returnable glass! 

About Us

Hi! I'm Simon Schulz, the founder of Schulz Organic Dairy, located in beautiful Timboon, Victoria, Australia. My family has been in the dairy industry now for three generations. My Opa Hermann was a pioneer in bio-dynamic and organic dairy farming and opened the very first cheesery in the region back in the 1980s. My dad Michael continues his ethos on our farm to this day. I'm the one creating award-winning non-homogenised and gently pasteurised dairy products from the organic milk our single-herd cows gift to us - milk, yogurt, fetta, cream, quark, and some limited runs of hand-churned butter.

I'm so mindful of how bad single-use plastics are for our environment and I feel really uncomfortable that as a business we contribute to the problem. So last year I trialled glass bottled milk at our stand at Farmers' Markets - we accept returns of these same glass bottles, to clean, refill and resell them. On our first week we sold out within thirty minutes, and the demand just kept growing.

It’s the returning and refilling part that is the most important element of this project. Rather than simply changing from single-use plastic to single-use glass, both destined for recycling (that may or may not happen) or landfill (increasingly likely), the glass bottles will be returnable and refillable, with an estimated re-usage rate of 8 times per bottle. We're completely closing the loop.

I went to the States in March this year to do some further research - there are a few places over there that are selling milk in returnable glass. I met with people in varying roles within the supply chain, and returned armed with the insights, confidence and validation that milk in glass provides the most viable environmental solution.

What You'll Get

Aside from being able to call yourself an environmental changemaker (how good does that feel?!) your opportunity to contribute involves some great perks, including -

FARM THINGS: vouchers to get your hands on our first custom bottles, a visit and a tour of our farm with yours truly, or name one of our new calves!

HOLLER THINGS: get your name on our new bottle labels (so thousands can appreciate just how generous you are) or have your name debossed into our new glass bottles, in-perpetuity!

LIMITED EDITION THINGS: we've also created perks in collaboration with people whom we love and respect, and who were eager to help us in our pursuit of a glass-bottle nirvana. One of these is Melbourne artist Dawn Tan - her stunning illustrations focus on food and nature, so working with Dawn was a no-brainer for us. Dawn has created the designs for our 'Milk Bottle Tote Bags' (an essential item for your Schulz milk-in-glass shop and safe bottle returns) and our 'Limited Edition "No Taste For Waste" T-Shirt', exclusive / one-time-only /  only available through our crowdfunding campaign. 

Challenges

Bringing glass-bottled milk to retail is challenging, no doubt. There are reasons why it hasn't been done widely yet (well, they did it back in the day - your grandparents might have some vague memories of the "milkman" who delivered milk in glass to the front door) - but it has seemed all too hard in this make-life-convenient day and age. Through our Farmers' Market trials, we're confident we've weeded out these logistical issues, and that our systems and processes can easily scale.

It is a product, though, that takes more effort. The retailer will need to manage returns and check the glass for any damage and ensure it is free of any milk residue before we collect them. We've taken some of our early retail supporters through this and they don't mind - they view it as a small extra effort for a greater global good. We call these legends our FOUNDING

RETAILERS and here they are (with more to come!):

• REGIONAL - SURFCOAST: East Fruit Market (Geelong), Harvey's of Highton (Highton), Pronto Fine Food Merchants (Warrnambool), Surf Coast Wholefoods (Torquay), Valerie's Pantry (Geelong)
• REGIONAL - MORNINGTON PENINSULA: Peninsula Fresh (Mornington)
• REGIONAL - GOLDFIELDS: Natures Garden (Woodend), Tonna's (Daylesford)
• MELB - ONLINE/DELIVERY: CERES Fair Food (check here to see if they deliver to your area)
• MELB - SOUTH: Aunt Maggies (Malvern), Brighton Grocer (Brighton), Broad Bean Organic Grocer (Southbank), Gum Tree Food Good (Albert Park, Middle Park, South Yarra), Leaf (Elwood), New Harvest Produce (Seaford), Moses & Co (South Melbourne), Patterson Organics (Bentleigh), Ripe Organic (Prahran)
• MELB - NORTH: Aunt Maggies (Carlton & Fitzroy), CERES Grocery (Brunswick East), DOC Gastronomica (Carlton), Organic Wholefoods (East Brunswick & Fitzroy), Rhubarb Rhubarb Organics (Preston)
• MELB - EAST: Apples & Sage (Balwyn), Eastfield Natural Foods (Croydon South)
• MELB - WEST: Altona Fresh (Altona North), Plump Organic (Yarraville), Organic Wholefoods (Flemington), The Happy Apple Greengrocer (Ascot Vale).

We will add to this list as we get closer to launching our new glass bottles in early 2019.

They will also need to manage the glass deposit scheme. As a buyer, you will need to pay a $2 deposit on top of the cost of buying a 1-litre bottle of milk (RRP $3.50). You'll get this money back when you return your bottle. It's the only way to ensure we get these bottle back into the system - if you decide you want to keep it for your bunch of flowers, we won't be left out-of-pocket. Glass ain't cheap. ;-)

Other Ways You Can Help

Not flush with cash? No sweat. Use every inch of your networking power to tell as many people as you can about our campaign. We're pretty sure you'll be rewarded with good karma. 

What We Need

So, here we are. Ready to scale our proven ideal. But that takes some cash. 

Currently, our process is very labour intensive - we've been hand-labelling and hand-filling all of our glass bottles and cleaning the returned ones in a domestic dishwasher - that simply won't cut it at the numbers we want to be selling.  Here's how we do it at the moment. 

We need to make modifications to our bottling line so it can take glass instead of plastic. We need to buy a commercial bottle washer that can clean hundreds of bottles at a time. We need to design a custom bottle that is sturdy enough to withstand reuse time and time again. Then we need to actually produce those bottles. We need to cover the costs of digitally marketing this idea to as many eyes as possible.

To do that, we need a minimum of $48,000 (with a stretch target of $75,000 which would really make our production line sing). For that sum, we can get all the equipment we need to produce 3,000 bottles a week. That will save 6 tonnes of plastic waste per year. 

But the more we raise, the more milk we can bottle in glass. If we tripled our target, we could bottle 10,000 a week, reducing our plastic bottle use by 20 tonnes per year! If we get to $500,000, we could convert our entire production of milk in plastic, to milk in glass - 1L, 2L, Full Cream and Skim Milk. The lot! Saving over 60 tonne of plastic per year. 

We really hope we can work together to do this! Thank you!