Why Overherd is More Sustainable Than Carton Oat Milk
Plant milk is an awful lot better than dairy
You probably already know that plant milk is already way more sustainable than dairy.
As a society, we are heading in the right direction which is great. But hold up!
There’s one better you can do for the planet. Enter Overherd, the UK's first oat milk powder.
The Problem: Plant milk is mostly water
Did you know that plant milk is mostly water? In fact, it often contains up to 98% water, we're looking at you almond milk!
While this isn’t an issue in itself, water ain't exactly light, so all this water makes plant milk unnecessarily bulky and heavy.
This means that plant milk producers are forced to use lots of packaging, which often doesn’t get recycled.
In addition, all that heavy diluted plant milk has to be transported around producing excessive carbon emissions.
Why Overherd is more sustainable
Plant milk powder is a new concept, and is essentially a concentrated version of regular store-bought plant milk but without the water.
Instead of the producer adding water, and then shipping the plant milk in bulky cartons to supermarket shelves, you add the water at home instead.
Plant milker powder is more sustainable because...
1️⃣ Less & easier to recycle packaging
Overherd oat milk powder is packaged in a lightweight pouch and uses 91% less packaging vs. regular bulky plant milk cartons.
These lightweight pouches also have the benefit of being made from a single material and subsequently are much easier to recycle.
Whilst you may have thought store bought plant milk cartons are just cardboard, they are in fact made from a combination of plastic, aluminium and paper fused together with solvents.
These layers are extremely difficult to separate which makes Tetra Pak cartons really hard to recycle. Unfortunately at last count, only 29.5% of cartons actually end up being recycled in the UK.
2️⃣ Transport emissions
Because Overherd isn't diluted with water (like other plant milk brands) it's 10x lighter, which means far fewer lorries are needed to move it from A to B.
This results in fewer transport emissions throughout the supply chain. The estimated carbon savings are in the region of 25-30%.
3️⃣ Food waste
Did you know 1 in 6 pints of milk are thrown away in the UK? This is really wasteful and damaging to the planet.
Have you ever had to throw away a half full carton of milk because it has gone off? Who hasn't?
Thankfully Overherd is a dried product and so naturally has a long shelf life, which means no more off milk.
You also only make what you need, when you need it, so it's virtually zero waste!
Where can you buy Overherd?
We are the UK’s first oat milk powder brand, using organic and gluten free oats - check it out here.
Simply add water, shake and enjoy, simple as that. Learn more about our sustainability here.
If you prefer other plant milk varieties like soy etc, also check out our article which lists other powdered vegan milk brands on the UK market.
We hope that more brands both within and outside the food industry take time to re-evaluate how products reach consumers in order to minimise our impact on the planet.