My bottle return story

Perhaps the appropriate way to view the Straub initiative is that it is a ‘refresh’?

From the article I linked:

“Straub last year struck a deal to commission its bottles from glass giant Owens-Illinois, which claims to have 7 billion such “most sustainable” bottles in circulation worldwide.”

And:

“Its newly designed, if retro, returnable cases and labels are relaunching Monday and gradually will be offered again in all markets where Straub is sold in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The bottles are filled with not just regular Straub lager and light, but also its American Amber for the first time.”

Cheers!

 

Good point on the holders, Veil uses cardboard ones that are pretty cool for their 4 packs. I was actually referring to brewers that use cans with the plastic brand shrink wrap around each can rather than a traditional paper label or painted can.

 

There are biodegradable (and even claimed to be edible) 6-pack holders available.

https://www.fastcompany.com/4051996...n-buy-beer-with-a-biodegradable-six-pack-ring

Corona is apparently test marketing this product:



https://www.beveragedaily.com/Artic...als-plastic-free-biodegradable-six-pack-rings

FWIW I have yet to see this any of my local beer retailers.

Cheers!

 

I think it's funny they are inventing new can holders when those tall/slender cans easily fit in a standard bottle 6-pack holder.


Or a fully enclosed box, like many craft can 6-packs are.

Why reinvent the wheel?

 

I am reminded of an old quote from Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain):

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

So, I found this statistic: “In North America beverage cans contain an average of about 68% recycled aluminum, according to the Aluminum Association.”

https://www.theguardian.com/sustain...lis-ford-cocacola-pepsi-miller-budweiser-beer

Take the above FWIW.

Cheers!

 

Absolutely true, process is just as important as equipment, and I should also keep in mind that in some cases small breweries are even doing mobile canning which can be very stop and start (which is not good). Additionally, I should note to myself that some breweries actually have great bottling equipment. I was just speaking, generally, as a packaging professional myself, that modern canning lines generally deliver less oxygen pick-up than bottling.

 

Each brewery's Marketing & Sales team will have their own unique 'answer' as to which packaging is best (for sales). Perhaps what is best for the environment is 'part of the equation'? Call me cynical but if they come with a great solution from an environmental impact perspective but that packaging solution does not sell well I am 99.99% sure the Marketing & Sales folks will not implement it.

Cheers!

 

Now if they can only make that edible 6-pack holder taste like a nacho chip they're onto something!

 

That's good news that the percentage is going up, it means more folks are recycling, but I always suspect any info from the aluminum industry, since in past they have made a lot of "damned lies" in support of their products.

Whatever the percentage is, the facts are that bauxite is getting harder, not easier, to find and mine, and is a non renewable resource that pollutes, and that buying a can is the same as ordering some bauxite to be mined and processed.

 

I had a suspicion that you would not readily trust information from the aluminum industry hence the prologue of the Mark Twain quote.

Not to go off on too much of a tangent but the situation remains whenever a statistic (e.g., percentage) is quoted by an 'authority' (e.g., an individual, an institution, a government (agency), an organization, a ...) how do we as consumers of that information know if it represents fact?

Cheers!

 

Do you think that Corona will also provide some free salsa with those 6-packs!?!

Cheers!

 

I find there are usually enough articles and info to sift through and evaluate to make some kind of opinion, even one that may not be made with totally accurate info. Best was when we subscribed to recycling industry literature at the recycle center. I always trusted those articles as they were done from a non profit point of view, i.e. no money to be made by not giving accurate info. But who knows?

To me when people consider things at all, it's a victory, since the avg. American doesn't give such things any thought

 

Money isn't the only motivation to fudge the numbers. There are all kinds of agendas; making a profit is only one among many.

 

I am reminded of another quote:

“73.6% of all Statistics are Made Up”

Cheers!

 

“Save the planet at all cost”

- JackHorzempa

Cheers!

 

Has anyone packaged beer in a box similar to those boxes of wine back in the day?

 

Well, there was Wm. Newman Brewing Co. in Albany, NY (first "craft" brewer in the east):

You could get them filled and refilled at the brewery and they also stocked some local store shelves with them.

 

At least that car is very sustainable!

I have an electric and people often ask me if I was ever got stranded out of power somewhere (hasn't happened yet). I tell them I have a Fred Flintstone Flap below the driver's seat for emergencies.

 

Agreed. I’ve seen enough “I only care about how the beer tastes” posts on this site to believe that consumer demand for companies to do the right thing will never be sufficient.

 

Especially if the extra costs for doing the "right thing" are passed on to the consumer!