The clinking of milk bottles will be a thing of the past with
the closure of New Zealand's last glass bottling plant.
As the Christchurch Meadow Fresh factory wound down glass
production debate still raged over what tastes best - glass,
plastic or cardboard.
Deliveries in the North Island stopped seven years ago but up until Wednesday many people in the south still enjoyed the walk to the gate to pick up their milk.
The sight of the milkman with bottles in tow was familiar for decades, but with the closure of the Christchurch Meadow Fresh bottling plant it is the end of the line for 25,000 bottles a day.
It is believed New Zealand Dairy Foods are replacing the glass bottles because of falling consumption, the age and decline of the bottling plant and claims cleaning the bottles harms the environment.
Protesters outside the plant portrayed Dairy Foods boss Graham Hart as the grinch who stole the glass bottle.
Green Party spokeswoman Natalie Cutler-Welsh says glass bottles make 30 trips compared to one trip that tetrapaks make to the landfill. She adds that glass is made from a renewable resource - sand.
Derek Shearer has delivered bottled milk for 12 years and says
it is hard to pin down the charm of the glass.
"Some people say it is the taste but there is no evidence of that.
I think it is probably a tradition, they have always had it in
bottles. They have always had it in bottles for the last 50 years
so why should they change," says Shearer.
However Shearer says the new packaging will have some benefits. "Breakages will be down, lids coming off - you won't get that with the alternative packaging."
Whatever your preference, glass milk bottles are now consigned to history.
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