[edbaskerville]

Straus Creamery sells their milk in glass jugs—available at grocery stores in San Francisco, including Safeway, the big chain. Stores charge you a deposit for the jug and refund it when you bring it back. Works very well. It would be nice if they designed new jugs that didn't always spill on your first few pours, though.

Haven't seen an analysis on the carbon cost of carrying the extra weight, but I would guess it's lower than manufacturing?

I would love to see SF (or anywhere) implement a system for reusable food takeout containers that made it easy for both restaurants and their customers. All you'd need is a citywide standard set of containers. Restaurants get daily container deliveries (only the kind they want) and customers get weekly (or monthly) container pickup. It would probably make sense for Recology (the recycling company) to handle the pickups.