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The Tesco store round the corner from my house has just started stocking 'milk bags'. I know Waitrose have trialled these last year and Sainsbury's were the first in the UK to introduce the milk bag and jug concept back in 2008.

The concept has actually been used in Germany for a number of years. Quite surprising it's taken some time to come over to the UK, but I guess that comes from differences in cultures and buying styles, but also as I expect the shift in packaging has required significant investments from milk producers/bottlers, who will have had to invest in new machinery and new materials.

It's not only Germany who has adopted this concept. A list of countries who have been using milk bags include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Nicaragua, Honduras, China, Colombia, Estonia, Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Montenegro, Poland, South Africa and Uruguay.

I think the idea is good, and at the introductory price I guess it's a bit of a bargain, and you get the added feel good factor that you are somewhere along the line helping the environment. Is slightly odd though, as where I live we are able to recycle plastic milk bottles, however you can't recycle plastic bags - so in theory the packaging has been reduced but now goes in the bin instead of all in the recycling? I guess there must be some logic somewhere along the line.

If we compare this to Kenco, who introduced their low packaging coffee bags a few years ago. I personally think this is a great idea, however it puts me off buying it when you pay more for a bag of coffee that you do for a larger amount of coffee in a glass jar. Whilst the goal is to reduce packaging, surely some of the cost savings should be passed on to the consumer? As many still feel the pinch from the 'credit crunch' and from Government cut backs, how can they be expected to pay out extra for a low packaging product?