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New Sustainable Milk Jugs Headed to a Grocery Store Near You

Kroger

Kroger, the grocery store chain, is set to roll out a new milk jug that uses considerably less plastic; a design that was tested by a Virginia company in Lynchburg.

Eric Smarko is the Site Leader at Westover Dairy. He says the new jugs are expected to use about five million less tons of plastic per year.

"Our original gallon milk jug was 62 grams. We did a project, made a major capital investment and we've been able to take a lot of the recyclable high-density polyethylene out; about 10% or 6 grams out of the bottle."

In addition to using less plastic, the new jug has a few other tricks up its sleeve.

"If you like to cook and you need a quart, you can just pour it out of the bottle and line up on the quart graduations. It also has a thumb hold at the top, so if you are holding something in one hand and have to pour with the other it gives grip for your hands."

Kroger plans to roll out the new jugs to its bottling facilities across the country.