Returnable bottles vs. recycling

Growlers - the ultimate refillable bottle.

Also, OP, Double Mountain is in Oregon, not Washington.

 

I am an idiot, and also lazy, as I don't want to read all the posts in this thread...

Why is it so much worse to recycle glass bottles rather than return them?

 

Yeah, for the brewery. Because the customer has to buy the bottle (often with a profitable mark-up for the brewery), clean the bottle and the brewer often charge MORE for the beer per ounce than the beer that has to be bottled, labeled and packaged.

Beer purchased in the old "refillable" bottles was typically cheaper than the same beer in throw-aways, reflecting the fact that the customer was also paying for the bottle and packaging in the latter case, and only "renting" it via a deposit in the former.

 

To heck with Glass bottles of aluminum cans. If Canada can sell milk in bags, I say Breweries start doing the same.

 

You must live in a state where you can only fill growlers at the brewery that is on the label.

Edit: and to your point about price: many of the breweries in these parts have 5 dollars growler fill days, 8 dollars growler fill days, etc... A lot of times its cheaper to buy beer via growler than it is to by in bottle or cans.

Example: The Commons brewery by me fills 64 ounce growlers for 12 bucks. they usually sell their 750 ml (25 oz) bottles for 9 to 11 dollars depending.

Growler price per ounce: 18.7 Cents
Bottle price per ounce (using 9 dollars bottle price): 36 cents

I aint a calculus teacher, but the growler seems like the better deal.

Boom. Math.

 

I upcycle all of my 22oz + bottles into hydroponic herb/succulent/air cleansing plant planters. Between giving them to friends and selling them locally, I do not have spare glass. 12 oz. go into the recycle bin until I come up with something to do with them. Message me if you are interested in the planters.

 

You mean like the Beer Pouch?

 

Nobody seems to realize this. The growler life ain't cheap.

 

On one hand, you have to pulvarize and then melt glass in a furnace and reform it (which requires a significant amount of energy). On the other, you have to rinse bottles in detergent and superheated steam and then treat the wastewater stream (which comparitively requires very little energy). Distribution chains are already in place for new bottles sent to breweries, and bottles could just as easily be rerouted from a reuse facility. The only difference for transportation costs is the density/packaging of the cargo sent to the processing facility (one being crushed, the other being cases on pallets), because presumably if you're destroying old bottles in this process you'll have to ship in new bottles from somewhere anyway. And where's the extra labor and warehousing for reused bottles when compared to these new bottles? It's pretty obvious that reusing bottles is more energy efficient.
I'd assume the increased use of cans and the non-uniformity of bottles are the primary economic reasons the switch was made in the 1970's, when energy was significantly cheaper than today and there was little concern for the environmental impact of these processes.

 

Or maybe in tetrapaks

 

At the end of the day there is no comparison to re-use that I can see (both environmentally and financially). I never quite understood why the US went away from deposits on bottles in most states. I imagine it just came down to somebody making money by changing the system.

I am currently in Wyoming and although they recently started a curbside recycling program (yes, we're behind the curve) they recently eliminated glass from it. So the only options now are to either drive 2+ hours to another state to recycle it yourself or pitch it.

One thing I have always wondered: If certain states do deposits, do those bottles get re-used or is it just a nickel attached to the same system the rest of the country has? I find it hard to believe that Michigan washes all their residents' bottles and sends them back to the individual companies from which they came while the other states just crush 'em down and recycle them. But who knows....

 

Patrik, how well do those cardboard containers retain carbonation levels? I would be concerned that the beer would go flat in those containers.

Cheers!

Jack

 

Because it cost more money for the brewery to process the returns than simply buy more bottles?

Again, that's a guess and speculation - nothing more. Just trying to see both sides of the argument.

 

Good question but I don't have an answer for it, it was only sold in Denmark and was a one time thing from what I understand, packaging their regular Christmas seasonal beer in a novelty package.

 

States with bottle return programs DO NOT reuse their bottles! you put them in a machine that immediately crushes them for the recycling process. Its disgusting!

 

But then that means using refillables would not be"economically friendly" (to use your terminology).

 

It's all crushed. If you're at a larger store with a machine, the machine crushes it before your very eyes.

I'd like to see some tangible statistics showing that deposits increase the amount recycled. I highly doubt it...

 

They are permitted to, they just don't cause they aren't aware of the benefits to themselves/their customers/the environment. We have to want to do this, people! The government isn't gonna make this happen, cause there is no money to be made in a capitalistic society on reuse. Capitalism depends entirely of the continuous depletion of our natural resources. It is a completely unsustainable practice with needs to be, at the very least, reevaluated; if not completely abolished!

 

What you both aren't realizing is that recycling something still creates an extraordinary amount of waste! The energy required to break down the glass and then to reprocess it into a new product is astronomical. you only save about 30% of the energy you would use if made from virgin materials. Reuse cuts that energy consumption and waste to a minuscule fraction of what recycled products use.

 

There is not a single statistic you whole rant. I'm calling BS!