Milk crates are
square
In geometry, a square is a regular polygon, regular quadrilateral. It has four straight sides of equal length and four equal angles. Squares are special cases of rectangles, which have four equal angles, and of rhombuses, which have four equal si ...
or
rectangular
In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...
interlocking
box
A box (plural: boxes) is a container with rigid sides used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides (typically rectangular prisms). Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or v ...
es that are used to transport
milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...
and other products from
dairies to
retail
Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholes ...
establishments.
In English-speaking parts of Europe the term "
bottle crate" is more common but in the United States the term "milk crate" is applied even when the transported beverage is not milk.
History
The dimensions of the milk crate may have been influenced by the dimensions of the
tea chest. For all practical purposes, both hold similar internal volumes, but tea chests are designed for shipping over the open ocean.
The bottle crate emerged after the tea chest was a de facto shipping method. The plastic milk crate is an Australian invention, produced through a period of trial and error in design by the
Dairy Farmers Cooperative Milk Company in the 1950s and 60s.
Design
Middle 20th century bottle crates were made of wood, later ones were stainless steel, and those made in the latter part of the century were of heavy-duty
polyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bott ...
.
The most common milk crate sizes are designed to carry several milk jugs:
Some milk crates have a height of , but this may vary.
Uses and recycling
Milk crates are often stolen for either personal or business use or for the plastic that they are made out of. Theft of milk crates can cost dairies millions of US dollars per year.
This has led at least one dairy farm to hire a private investigator to discover what is happening to the crates; the results of investigations point to plastic re-sellers being the culprits in the majority of thefts.
Starting around the 1970s, some plastic manufacturers began marketing milk crate types of storage containers to consumers for use in personal storage or decor. These products competed with higher-end proprietary modular plastic storage cube systems, such as the Finnish "Palaset" line marketed by
Design Research; the consumer-grade storage crates varied widely in price, quality, and sturdiness compared to their commercial counterparts. The basic milk crate stackable design was often modified to also allow stacking with the openings facing sideways rather than upwards, thus creating a bookshelf-like set of storage compartments. Similar products remain on the market in the 21st century.
Alternate shipping methods
In July 2008,
Walmart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores in the United States and 23 other ...
and some other stores introduced a
square milk jug that does not need to be transported in a crate. Sometimes called "green" milk jugs, they are not
green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
in color, but rather are claimed to be
environmentally friendly
Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that c ...
.
These new milk jugs are stackable up to a specified maximum height, and can be transported without crates. Companies need not buy plastic for shipping crates, or to transport or wash them.
"Cheaper, Stackable, "Green" Milk Jugs Cause a Stir"
. Jason Mick (Blog), July 1, 2008, DailyTech.com.
See also
* Banana box
A banana box is a type of corrugated box for transportation of bananas. It often consists of a separate lower part and a telescoping lid. Carrying Package handle, handles and vent holes allow banana respiration and permit access to processing ga ...
, a type of cardboard box designed for transportation of bananas
* Crate
A crate is a large shipping container, often made of wood, typically used to transport or store large, heavy items. Steel and aluminium crates are also used. Specialized crates were designed for specific products, and were often made to be reus ...
* Euro container, a similarly-sized standardized container
* Milk crate challenge
* Reusable packaging
Reusable packaging is manufactured of durable materials and is specifically designed for multiple trips and extended life. A ''reusable package'' or container is "designed for reuse without impairment of its protective function." The term returnabl ...
* Tea chest
References
{{packaging
Dairy farming
Crate
A crate is a large shipping container, often made of wood, typically used to transport or store large, heavy items. Steel and aluminium crates are also used. Specialized crates were designed for specific products, and were often made to be reus ...
Shipping containers
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