Ditching cows milk could be the best thing you can do to help the environment
There are many reasons why you might choose to stop drinking animal milk.
Lactose intolerance, a decision to go vegan, a general uneasiness with the idea of drinking milk that was intended for baby cows.
But you might not have realised that reducing how much cows milk you drink could have a hugely beneficial effect on the environment.
Milk production is actually pretty damaging – it generates a colossal amount of carbon dioxide emissions.
According to figures shared exclusively with Metro.co.uk, the average amount of milk consumed by a Londoner is 1.61 litres each week, which produces the equivalent emissions of driving 22.4 km in a car every week.
When you combine all of Londons milk consumption, that equates to an incredible 196,848,781 km of driving per week – thats 1,047,068 times around the M25, and a huge amount of pollution.
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As a nation we are slowly but surely becoming more environmentally conscious.
Almost two-thirds (62%) of Londoners no longer use disposable coffee cups and 44% now refuse to purchase plastic shopping bags.
But the environmental impact of products that we use every day – including the dairy in our diet – hasnt yet made it on to the mainstream radar.
The research was commissioned as part of Oatlys Ditch Milk campaign, encouraging Londoners to swap go-to dairy for a more environmentally friendly alternative.
They found that by replacing cows milk with an oat drink, Londoners can cut a huge 73% of Co2e emissions – an equivalent of 142,715,366 km worth of car journey.
When we hear phrases like Co2e and carbon emissions being thrown about, we often think about the impact of cars, buses and factories.
In fact, the food system accounts for 20-25% of the worlds total climate footprint, explains Ishen Paran, Oatly General Manager UK.
Which milk alternative is best for the environment?
Oat milk
Drinking oat milk once a day creates the equivalent greenhouse gasses as driving a car 168 miles over the course of a year, or heating your home for 10 days.
Almond milk
Drinking almond milk once a day creates the equivalent greenhouse gasses as driving a car 130 miles over the course of a year, or heating your home for eight days.
Rice milk
Drinking almond milk once a day creates the equivalent greenhouse gasses as driving a car 219 miles over the course of a year, or heating your home for 13 days.
Soy milk
Drinking almond milk once a day creates the equivalent greenhouse gasses as driving a car 182 miles over the course of a year, or heating your home for 11 days.
So, according to these figures – from BBC science and environment research – almond milk appears to be slightly ahead when it comes to environmental impact, with oat milk a close second.
Most reasonable people agree that to avoid an environmental catastrophe, we must keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 C and making small changes like swapping cows milk for oat drink in our tea, coffee and cereal could have a huge cumulative impact on reducing emissions, Ishen adds.
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Over the past few years weve seen the UK embrace changing attitudes towards plastic usage, and although theres still a way for us to go, wed love to see London apply this approach to other environmentally damaging products.
Its time to ditch milk to significantly reduce our climate footprint.
