Hands down, plastic jugs are the containers of choice for refrigerated milk, a $10 billion category. Plastic containers of milk were responsible for 84% of the category's dollar sales -- -$8.528 billion -- while milk in paper cartons generated nearly 16%, or $1.621 billion, in the food, drug and mass channels, according to ACNielsen data for the 52 weeks ending July 16. Sales of milk in glass bottles amounted to a drop in the bucket -- less than $14 million over the same period. Yet of the three container categories, glass containers have posted the greatest percentage increases, both in unit and dollar volume, in recent years. In dollar volume, glass-bottle sales increased 10.9% from July 2004 to July of this year, compared with 3.4% growth for paper cartons, and 2.6% growth for plastic containers, according to ACNielsen. In unit volume, glass-bottle sales went up 10%, while paper-carton sales dropped 0.3%, and plastic-carton sales declined 1.4%.
