Running for Empties

Short Film (Full Length) – 1988

I'm saving for a skateboard.
– 14-year-old Glenn talks about his milk run earnings

For the milk boys it's more than a job. It's a race against time, the elements and each other...
– Narrator Ewan Cole sets the scene for the afternoon milk run

The dogs are quite annoying 'cause they bark and run alongside you, or try and nip you on the back of the leg...but the cats aren't so bad because they run off as soon as they see you.
– Glenn talks about the occupational hazards on a regular milk run

It was 1987 and supermarkets were starting to sell milk, in cartons. "It was really a competitive move on behalf of the dairy companies," Anthony says. "It was another way of differentiating your milk product." The milkmen were still going around their routes, Anthony says, but there was a big shift in the way people bought their milk.
– Ian Anthony from the New Zealand Dairy Group on the switch from glass bottles to cartons and plastic bottles, Stuff, 13 October 2019