Boulevard Brewing Company, Ripple Glass, and Recycling
Categories: Beer News
Written By: THFBeer_nate
Back when I was a kid, my folks always purchased their soda in the bottle. After all the pop had been guzzled, the six empty bottles were returned to the store, where a refund was given per soda bottle. Not only did this put some money back in the hands of my cash stricken parents, it helped out the bottler (I’ve been told bottles are more cheaply made with recycled glass than raw products), and reduced landfills.
Does anyone remember this process?
While soda bottles, along with 8 tracks and jelly shoes, are but a memory, beer bottles are still thriving. I would guess that 99.8% of the beer I purchase at the store utilizes the bottle to deliver the sweet malty goodness to my glass. It sure would be nice to get a deposit back! I would guess that most beer consumers don’t recycle their bottles (I do–mine are reused for to house home brewed beer). With “going green” all the rage these days, it seems like every brewery is doing something for the environment. While I see brewers utilizing solar power, wind power, and implementing water conservation methods, I never see any brewery tackling the bottle problem. So I had to hand it to Boulevard Brewing Company when I discovered their latest venture, Ripple Glass.
Boulevard Brewing Company, realizing that their bottles (10 million per year!) were ending up in landfills, decided to create a company that would eliminate the waste. Kansas City businesses use over 100 million pounds of recycled glass every year, but all that glass comes from outside the KC metro area. Setting up recycling stations throughout the city, Ripple Glass now saves bottles from an eternity in local landfills and sells them to local fiberglass producers.
I applaud their efforts (and their beer)…I wouldn’t mind sampling and reviewing a few bottles of their new Smokestack Series, but unfortunately it doesn’t distribute to Northwest Ohio. (hint, hint).
But let me backtrack to earlier in this article. Why not bring back the whole “deposit/refund” idea? Granted, many grocery store beer consumers will be hard pressed to bring their bottles back to the store, but for those nerds who are in their local beer store two or three times a week, returning the bottles would be preferred, especially if a small refund were in order.
The bottle simply would been to be washed, label removed, and sanitized, and could then be reused by the brewery. I am sure this could be done for less than the price of a new bottle? This is what most home brewers, myself included do. I have never bought a new empty bottles for my homebrew, and know of none who have.
Perhaps I am pragmatist who lacks the foresight to see the major hiccups in the system, but if it once worked for soda bottles, it at least seems plausible. Regardless, a tip of the hat to you, Boulevard Brewing Company, for your green entrepreneurial mindset and moxy!
September 14th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Nate, nice work in promoting greener bottle use. We participate in the deposit/refund system here in California; of course, it doesn’t actually put extra money into your pocket (you pay a CRV fee when you check out, so the $0.05 you get back / bottle [$0.10 for larger bottles] is part of what you’re charged at the register), but hopefully it provides some incentive for people to recycle, especially if they otherwise would not have. (Also, sad as it is, I see plenty of people go through the trash for others’ unclaimed CRV materials; again, recycling something that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill.)
I like the idea of breweries re-using the bottles, though; after all, in the “green cycle,” REUSE is the second part of the mantra (I am, of course, thinking of reduce and recycle as the other members), particularly since it takes even less energy and resources to do this than it does even to recycle. Another good reason to take up homebrewing? Mike has found lots of good use for empty bottles every time he brews a new batch. : )
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September 14th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Thanks for the comment, Andrea. I didn’t know that CA still participated in this system. Sandra makes vases out of old bottles and rope.
Someday Mike and I will save tons reusing old bottles.
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September 15th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Some states do this, and it makes sense. I know in NY and VT, like in CA, you pay for it up front, I guess its a deposit on the bottle really. In NJ, we’re mandated to clean and recycle the bottles for free. The town sells the glass to someone and the funds generated are supposed to lower my taxes but I haven’t seen that happen yet.
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September 15th, 2009 at 5:49 am
“The town sells the glass to someone and the funds generated are supposed to lower my taxes but I haven’t seen that happen yet.” ahahahahaaaa
Too funny Scott.
i think a fantastic business idea would be collecting a breweries used bottles, cleaning, de-labeling, and selling them back to the brewery for a nominal price. I’m sure that would amount to more than an elusive tax break!
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September 15th, 2009 at 7:03 am
When I was a kid in Iowa, my summers were bankrolled on refunded recyclable bottles and cans. Later as a teen in Michigan, they kept my gas gauge off empty. I now live in New Jersey and and there’s no cash value for recyclables. We just give them away at the curb. But not everyone recycles because there’s really no incentive. It makes no sense.
I live near the New York state line and often think of the money I could make rounding up the neighbors bottles and cans and driving across the border. Sort of like a homeless entrepreneur with a Subaru.
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September 15th, 2009 at 10:26 am
@Jim: Michigan offers the highest redemption value…If you are a Seinfeld fan, you might even remember an episode in which Newman and Kramer tried to get rich by doing exactly what you describe…driving over to michigan to redeem their bottles…funny episode!
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September 15th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Bottles and cans and just clap your hands…sorry, who else was going to do that Beck reference if I didn’t. I’m actually waiting to redeem some bottles that I’ve got. The funny thing is that I got rid of a ton of bottles (800 or so) before I moved to Cali. Wish I had that $.05-.10 a bottle now.
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September 21st, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Bigger Landfills, one in every town!!! somehow it takes an impact on your personal space or pocketbook to get people moving in the right direction.
Like nate, I also did recycle many bottles into my homebrewing, but now most of them are collecting dust since moving to kegs. What I do drink now goes to the recycle bin.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 8:24 am
@simplybeer: Yea, you are right…personal discomfort or gain is usually the world’s primary motivators. Too bad it’s not conviction!
I’ve been dying to get into kegging…not gonna happen till I sell my house and have more space though.
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September 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 am
True! The categorical imperative has gone out the window.
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