I get milk in glass bottles from the local dairy (corner store, convenience store, konbini... you get the idea). I take back the empty bottles and get a refund for the returned cleaned bottles. It’s less plastic to bring in the house to just throw out again once empty. The glass bottles get returned to the dairy farmer for a refill.
One time I handed my empty bottles across the counter to Dilip. He’s the kindest corner store owner I have ever met and has run the local shop for decades.
"Your bottles are so clean!"
"What do you mean?"
"People don't return bottles this clean. Sometimes you don't even want to touch them for how dirty they are!"
That surprised me. What's so hard about washing milk bottles?
When Jaime's friends come over to hang out here, they are welcome to help themselves to anything in the kitchen. I don't mind. My only requirement is that they do the dishes and wipe down any mess they made in the kitchen.
One evening they made some Korean noodles for dinner. I heard them talking in the kitchen after Jaime herded them back once the noodles have been slurped.
"Where's your dishwasher?" one of the boys ask.
"We don't have one." Jaime replied.
"Everybody has a dishwasher!"
"Well we're not everybody!" Jaime retorted back.
"How the hell are we supposed to wash dishes without a dishwasher?" from the other boy.
I live in one of the oldest suburbs in Wellington. Houses are grand and the median property price in the area is relatively high. People who live here mostly are on good income and have houses equipped with dishwashers. As a matter of fact, I haven't been to any house in the area that doesn't have a dishwasher.
Milk in glass bottles are not the cheapest way to get your dairy requirements. You can get a 3-litre plastic bottle of milk in the budget brand range for $5.571. In glass bottles they are $7 a litre, and you get $2 back for returning the bottle. If you're on low income, or have kids who guzzle down milk like there's no tomorrow, then milk in glass bottles are probably not your budget priority.
Milk bottles are tall and skinny. These don’t fit in a dishwasher. They need to be hand-washed. Judging from Dilip's comment about the state of bottle cleanliness it sounds like some people who buy milk in glass bottles don't know how to wash the bottles. Judging from the boys' comments it sounds like they've never hand-washed anything in their lives. Maybe their parents never taught them how to hand-wash dishes because they never do it themselves and they return their empty glass bottles dirty.
I personally enjoy the slowness of washing dishes. I pre-rinse the dishes in cold water. Then I half fill the sink with hot water and add the dishwashing liquid2. I start with the glasses first; then the plates and cutlery; then the cooking pots and utensils. There's something very satisfying about moving dirty dishes from one side of the sink to the other in a neatly sorted stack.
If there’s a milk bottle to be washed, then this gets washed first with the glasses and then it drains upside down. It comes out sparkling.
So why don't I have a dishwasher in my house? My kitchen is small. I don't want to waste the space for something that only does one thing.
I'd like to think that I'm doing social service for the kids who come here to hang out. If they didn't know how to hand wash dishes before they came here, then they'd sure learn the basics of it by the time they leave. Just because they live in a house that currently has a dishwasher doesn't mean they'll always have one available when they move out later as young adults.
A dishwasher is a privilege, not a right.
New Zealand $$
There’s a divide on how to wash dishes by hand. I’ve been doing dishes the New Zealand way since arriving here 25 years ago.
And she is B A C K!!!!! With clean bottles.
That's the way I washed my dishes while waiting for a new dishwasher during the pandemic.