Save The Environment - Ask for a beer in a can.

When many of us go out on the town for the night and order a beer without question, we expect it to be served in a glass bottle. But why? Maybe it's because we all assume a bar or restaurant that serves beer in cans must be some dingey dive bar in a college town. Put simply, there's no prestige in drinking from a can.

And that's too bad. Beer in a cans keeps light out and can lock in flavor longer. This keeps beverages fresher, longer. Boxes are also easier to recycle. glass is heavy, dirty and dangerous

Many restaurants and bars are currently struggling with how to save money on waste collection services while remaining environmentally responsible. Serving beer in cans could be an answer to this problem.

Restaurants that want to save a bit of money or maybe just want to be perceived as environmentally responsible might sign up with their hauler's commercial single-stream recycling program. Meaning the bar will get a recycling container and a trash container similar to how homeowners recycle.

But single-stream recycling is plagued with skyrocketing contamination rates. Separating glass, cardboard, and paper in a compacted commercial container is extremely difficult. If the waste hauler notices wet cardboard or unwashed bottles they will probably add a contamination fee to the business's bill and truck the recyclables right to the landfill.

How can a business recycle effectively?

Businesses tend to throw away one type of material consistently. If this material is a recyclable, sorting would be simple with multiple containers. glass goes in the glass container, cardboard goes in the cardboard container, and the rest goes in the garbage container. By separating your recyclables, you can guarantee a low contamination rate. 

This is called multi-stream recycling and leads to the lowest contamination rates and the highest quality recycled material.

Let's talk glass.

Glass has become almost impossible to recycle, even when wholly separated from other recyclables. It's dirty, heavy, hard to handle, and has virtually no value. City's like Omaha have entirely suspended glass from being part of their residential single-stream recycling program.

When glass is placed in a recycling compactor truck, it breaks and unfortunately contaminates other valuable recyclables, such as paper and cardboard. Broken glass is also a safety issue in sorting facilities where materials are manually sorted.

Cans > Glass

If bars and restaurants took on a multi-stream recycling program as suggested, then also started serving beers in cans, they would be doing something for the environment and save money.

Logistically cans are lighter, they won't break when you drop them, they keep beverages fresher, and they are actually worth money. If a bar or restaurant kept a separate container of aluminum cans, you could probably get it picked up for free. 

A container of cans is non-perishable so it would not be part of a food waste regulatory requirement.

Cardboard should also be separated

Again logistically, boxes can be broken down flat and stacked in a separate container leaving you more space for trash. 

U-Sort, U-Save

By sorting recyclables before throwing them out could a business could save thousands of dollars per year. Also, by supplying a waste hauler with high-quality recyclable material, the hauler will most likely reward the company with favorable terms or even discounts.