Got Milk? It's in the Bag.

LONDON, June 10, 2008 — -- How about a bag of milk?

That's what you'll be requesting in the future if the latest recycling idea in Britain catches on throughout the world.

Sainsbury's, one of the country's largest supermarket chains, is introducing what it calls a "revolutionary" eco-friendly milk container that may reduce milk packaging waste by 75 percent.

"It's a substantial reduction in the amount of plastic used in the process, and the distinct advantage is that bags are much smaller, therefore they have less impact on the whole recycling chain," Sainsbury's spokesman Hamish Thompson told ABC News.

The principle is simple: Bags, once the milk has been consumed, collapse, thus taking up much less space than plastic milk bottles when you throw them away (preferably into a recycling bin).

The new milk bag holds two pints, and looks like a small water bladder of the kind that hikers and bikers carry in their backpacks.

The bag is squishy to the touch, meaning you might be tempted to imagine squeezing a certain part of the cow from which it came. It is also being called a milk pouch, which could offer up even more unsettling imagery of delivery by kangaroos.

Thompson pointed out that long before the word environment was in common use, milk used to be delivered in environmentally friendly fashion, by horse and cart. "The milkman would come to ladle into a jug, which would sit on the breakfast table, so I guess it brings the whole thing full circle."

Unlike some water bladders, the milk bag has no hose and mouth piece. To get to the milk you need to pierce the bag. But don't worry, you don't have to hold it up and hope that you can squirt from the bag to your mouth without hitting your eye.

The milk bag is designed to snap into a reusable, rigid, no-leak plastic jug with a spike that opens a hole and a spout for pouring. The jug costs about $5. Each quart-sized recyclable, plastic bag of milk will cost about $1.60.

Milk bags have been tried before in Britain, dating back to the '70s. But the public just wasn't interested.

Now, however, amid increasing concern about harm to the environment, supermarkets are under pressure to reduce waste.

Some large department stores are charging extra for plastic bags at the check-out counter, in hopes of reducing the amount of plastic in circulation.