A vegan milk factory will soon deliver its zero-waste plant milks across the UK in an electric van

Milkmen were once a common sight in the UK, but with dairy falling out of fashion they are now few and far between.

However, one company is keen to bring back this handy service to the modern age by offering a fully-vegan milk delivery service.

The founders of Devon-based company ReRooted Organic, Richard Eckersley and Dan Dawson, have spent the past two years producing and delivering freshly made dairy-free milk straight to their customer’s doors in their electric van around their headquarters in Totnes, but will soon be expanding across the UK as the company has recently partnered with Riverford founder Guy Singh-Watson whose organic vegetable box delivery company distributes UK-wide.

The environment is at the heart of everything ReRooted does, with the idea to launch their own vegan milk delivery service borne from their frustration at not being able to find a plant-based milk that was zero waste and high-quality.

Speaking about the inspiration to offer a vegan milk delivery service, co-founder Richard, who is also the founder of the UK’s first zero-waste shop, Earth.Food.Love, told ITV News: “Our idea came from frustration really. Our zero waste shop customers were asking us for milk – we contacted loads of producers to try and find one not using Tetra Pak, but we couldn’t find any.

“No one is really doing what we’re doing, and we’ve been figuring it out from day one. We didn’t want a third party manufacturer, we wanted to do everything in house so there’s a lot of traceability – we know where every ingredient comes from and how its made.”

In order to make the business as eco-friendly as possible, ReRooted delivers its products in reusable glass bottles with cardboard labels as well as recycling the byproducts to lower their impact on the planet.

The company buys the organic ingredients used to make its products from farmers cooperatives and its almonds are sourced from Spain and Italy, whilst its coconut comes from the Philippines or Sri-Lanka.

When their delivery area expands across the UK to reach an estimated 64% of homes when the Riverford expansion begins, each milk bottle will still be returned to the Totnes base to be cleaned and reused again.

Co-founder Dan Dawson believes that the demand for plant-milks is now so huge that he hopes it signifies the end of dairy is nigh.

“In truth at first we were a bit gung-ho. We’ve worked really hard with our milks to match the flavour profile of cow’s milk,” he told ITV News.

“One of the major aspects for us is to reduce the need for dairy milk. Our mission statement is to end the need for dairy farms. The whole purpose is to give a really viable delicious milk [which is] arguably a more ethical option.”

ReRooted currently offers organic almond and coconut milk for delivery, but will soon expand their range to include oat milk, cashew, hemp, rice, hazelnut and chocolate hazelnut milks.

Image credit: ReRooted Organic/Facebook