Doorstep milk deliveries now available in 17 French cities

A start-up is reviving doorstep milk deliveries – driven by a mission to reduce people’s reliance on plastic containers.

Lille-based Le Fourgon delivers milk alongside bottles of soup, soft drinks, water and juice, and is now operating in 17 cities, including Bordeaux, Toulouse and Nancy.

It launched in Metz last month and there are plans to expand further. You can search on their website to see if the service delivers in your area.

The items are put in a crate and left on customers’ doorsteps.

When the glass containers are empty, drivers in electric vehicles pick them up for cleaning before they are used again.

Read more: France moves to introduce glass deposit scheme in supermarkets

One million bottles reused per month

The business was inspired by similar bottle return systems in Belgium and Germany.

Le Fourgon marketing manager Louise Motte said: “We are all ecologically aware, but many people don’t take the time to do what is necessary.”

She said customers pay a fair price for their delivered goods, with prices similar to those in supermarkets.

The company launched in 2020. “In the first year, we reused one million bottles, now it is one million per month,” Ms Motte said.

She added that deposits were compulsory in France just 40 years ago, particularly for milk deliveries and brewers, but with the emergence of mass retailing, the market shifted to one-way packaging and, in particular, to plastic bottles.

“Laws are starting to be passed that are helping reinstate deposit schemes but what is holding people back is the single-use consumption habit.

“Our main aim for the future is to eliminate these from people’s rubbish bins.”

The government says it wants to halve the number of single-use plastic bottles in France by 2030.

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