MISSING MILK BOTTLES

Southland Times, Issue 23378, 9 December 1937, Page 6

MISSING MILK BOTTLES

13,000,000 A YEAR

FIRM’S UNUSUAL TASKS

It has been authoritatively estimated that there are 250,000,000 milk bottles in circulation in this country, states The Times, and it is a remarkable fact that over 13,000,000 of these are lost to their' rightful owners every year. Since 1919, however, milk distributors and dairy farmers have been responsible for financing an organization to recover these lost bottles and return them to their owners. This concern, which goes by the name of Milk Vessels Recovery, Ltd, has its headquarters at Tottenham, where as many as 50,009 bottles are received every day for sorting. The widespread activities of the organization can be gauged from the fact that at Tottenham are to be seen milk bottles from every country in the world which have found their way into this country. PROSECUTION OF OFFENDERS Some of the bottles, marked in an undistinguishable foreign language and of quaint shape, form a private museum; but where there is an accumulation of bottles, as in the case of the sorting section for South Africa, where there are now some 1500 bottles, they are eventually returned to the country from which they came. The return of bottles from foreign countries is only a minor activity of the firm. Its chief work is collecting and sorting the bottles of its 3000 subscribing members. About 10,000,000 milk bottles were lost to their owners last year, either by inadvertently becoming mixed in the ordinary course of trade or by being stolen by less scrupulous dairy men for use in distributing their own milk. Though it is illegal under the Merchandise Marks Act for a dairy man to sell milk in bottles belonging to and. marked with the name of another owner, this practice continues extensively in many parts of the country. In detecting and prosecuting such offenders Milk Vessels Recovery is doing valuable work. The organization is strictly impartial, and it is noteworthy that of about 1000 prosecutions on such grounds in the past 10 years, onehalf have been against its own members, FARMERS’ CHURNS PROTECTED A staff of experienced inspectors is maintained, whose duty it is to inspect the bottles on delivery carts and to report any such offence. At the same time they arrange for the collection by the association’s fleet of vans of bottles which have been used illegally or merely in error. . . Dairy farmers are also protected against the loss of their churns, and last year nearly 17,000 were recovered. The practice of using stolen churns after the name of the owner, which is stamped into the metal, has been obliterated by solder or covered by a new brass plate, has been successfully combated by the use of a mirror inside the churn, which reflects the name of the rightful owner. Many convictions have resulted from the use of this simple device. DISCOVERIES IN HOUSES Another type of petty thieving is that of the crank who, for no apparent reason, accumulates in his house the milk bottles delivered to his door. It is common for an inspector to be sent, as a result of private information, to a house and to find between 300 and 400 empty milk bottles harboured in cupboards and under tables. The organization also works in close association with local authorities and owners of popular resorts for picnic parties. Last year 1,500,000 bottles were reclaimed from local authorities after having been deliberately discarded. An equal number was collected from such places as private parks and playing fields.