Milma to phase out half-litre milk packets

Kochi: Milma will soon shift to eco-friendly packaging of milk and milk products following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announ-cement on banning single use plastic products from October 2.

Milma (Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd), the major milk supplier in Kerala, has decided to reduce the use of plastic sachets and will stop the 500-ml packet in a phased manner. The milk major is also working on setting up loose milk vending machines across the state.

As a pilot project, it has started packing toned milk in one-litre packet in Thrissur. The plastic sachets used by Milma have thickness of more than 50 microns and can be recycled. The minimum thickness of a 500-ml milk sachet is 53 microns while one-litre sachet has thickness of 65 microns.

Milma sells around 13 to 13.5 lakh litres of packaged milk in various categories daily. Apart from milk, milk products like curd, butter, ice cream and buttermilk (sambharam) are also being sold in plastic packets. Of the 13.5 lakh litres, nearly 13 lakh litres are being sold in packets and the remaining 50,000 litres as loose milk to big consumers like hotels, hospitals and canteens.

Milma managing director Dr Murali Das told DC that the State Pollution Control Board had agreed to help Milma collect the used milk packets for processing. “The PCB will appoint an agency for collecting the packets and Milma will pay user fee of one paisa per litre of milk. A decision in this regard was taken during a recent meeting convened by the  dairy development minister K. Raju to discuss the price revision of milk. But it is impossible to take back the entire quantity of used packets,” he said.

“Though the vending machines installed at selected points in Thiruvananthapuram on an experimental basis received lukewarm response, we will continue the initiative. In cities like Delhi, loose milk vending machines of dairy cooperatives are a big success,” he added.

Milma also plans to replicate another model implemented in states like Maharashtra wherein the shops selling milk will buy back the used packets and will give a discount of 50 paise on the next purchase.

Milma procures plastic packaging sheets from companies selected through tendering. At present, the packaging sheet is being procured from a firm outside the state as 25 to 80-kg rolls.