Nutrition

Mammal milk is intended as the sole food source for young mammals and is therefore uniquely nutritious. As adults we also eat a lot of other things, so we have no real need for the thing we put in our coffee to be some super-charged nutrient fiesta.

However, while you may not think of your cuppa as an important protein source, there are academics pointing out that milk does supply protein, and if you don’t get it from there, you will need to get it from somewhere else.

The amount of protein in plant milks varies by brand, but this table has indicative figures:

Grams of protein per 100ml Cow 3.5 Soya 3-3.15 Pea, chickpea 2-3 Almond, cashew, hazel, brazil nut, spelt, buckwheat, millet, barley, quinoa, hemp, tiger nut 0.5-1 Oat 0.2 Rice, coconut 0.1

Packaging

The vast majority of plant milks are sold in cartons, although there are a few brands that use plastic bottles. Good Hemp, for example, sells in both.

Most beverage cartons are made by the Swedish company Tetra Pak, and the company name has become synonymous with the product. But there are actually some other companies that make them, such as Elopak and SIG Combibloc.

The cartons are about 75% card, but this is layered with plastic (polyethylene) and, in the ones that are designed to preserve liquids outside of the fridge, a thin layer of aluminium.

The environmental impact of the packaging In terms of carbon, the carton is a small proportion of your plant milk’s footprint.

A litre Tetra Pak carton has a carbon footprint of around 40 grams, which is about 3-6% of the footprint of the contents. And it is around three or four times less than plastic bottles, which take much more energy to make.

However, obviously, climate change is not the only issue, resources and pollution issues also matter.

Beverage cartons are recyclable, but not back into cartons. The card can be recycled into paper, and the plastic/ aluminium layer can be turned into building materials like roof sheets.

Globally, only about 26% of them are recycled (figures are not available for the UK). UK carton recycling facilities have been very poor but have been getting better – the first UK dedicated facility, which is near Halifax, opened in 2013. They are now collected at the kerbside in most of the UK.

Plastic bottle recycling is more embedded, and about 57% of them are recycled in the UK. You can theoretically recycle them back into plastic bottles, but not infinitely – plastic degrades each time you melt it.

And they aren’t sturdy enough to withstand the sterilisation that would be required for them to be reused commercially without melting.

Most recycled bottles are turned into polyester fibre – used for clothing and furnishings. Obviously, bottles contain much more plastic. And while you can save a lot of energy by recycling plastic bottles, in the best-case scenario in terms of the amount of recycling likely to happen, their carbon footprint only attains levels similar to the worst-case scenario for cartons.

Overall, it seems pretty clear that cartons are the better option. However, if you make your own plant based milk you can avoid the whole issue of Tetra Paks and plastic bottles. Store your homemade milks in a reusable glass bottle.