yev's profile

Thursday, June 1st, 2023 6:40 PM

Oatly in glass bottles, limited edition

Hi Oatly,

As I grew up in a small Ukrainian village, I never saw milk sold in carton packaging in my childhood. Instead, we had 3L glass jars or 1L glass bottles. I miss my village, but because of the war can't come back. I live in Finland now though and can easily access your products.

I understand there will be a million reasons why you don't sell oat milk in glass bottles on a big scale. But, perhaps, a limited edition would work. I am ready to pay a higher price for my childhood memories, and my grandma too! πŸ‘΅πŸ»

(I also never seen what is Oatly doing when I am shaking the carton pack 🧐. I always wanted to see!)

47 Messages

1 year ago

Hey there Yev,

 

I'm so sorry we missed your message, it made its way into an unmonitored mailbox. But alas, I'm here now to answer your question...

 

There are a number of reasons we don't use glass bottles. As we ship our products across many countries the weight of glass would increase the overall carbon footprint creating an overall much bigger impact per litre of oat drink. On top of this, glass is very resource intensive to produce so even though it can be reused, if bottles were broken during transit replacing them would again raise the overall carbon footprint substantially. 

 

We love how inventive you are by suggesting a limited edition! I'll be sure to put it forward to our product team but, it's good to mention that we will always choose the most sustainable route and for Oatly, at this moment in time glass isn't a viable option for our packaging.

 

Thank you for your lovely message, Yev. It's so nice to get a glimpse into your childhood and I truly hope that one day you're able to return to your village.

 

All the best,

 

Bex at Oatly

 

@Bex​ 

Hi Bex, 

I found this old thread today. Thank you for creating Oatly. I was wondering if this suggestion can be experimented to achieve sustainability.

It is a subscription program. As a company you will have an idea of steady income this way. You can go two ways with this.

Option 1: 
1. The subscription program is through a tie up with large groceries like whole foods or some other vendor where it is easy to implement it. 
2. People pick up bottled glasses on a regular basis.
3. They drop off the old glass when picking new one. 
4. Glass bottles are charged $$ which is refunded when returned. 
5. Glass is sanitized locally and recirculated. 

Option 2: 
1. Sell the oat milk in a bulk dispenser at whole foods and other big vendors.
2. I would say, provide your own glass which customers can reuse so the size is predictable and you can add extra sanitation steps. 

I would love to be part of that subscription program. I am supporting your through investments. Hope to see more innovations