One question we’ve been faced with goes like this:
What kind of beer container is best for the environment?
The answer is: Kegs. They’re reusable. So are the glasses you’re pouring your beer into (or, if you’re having a picnic or something, surely you’re using easily biodegradable plastic cups made from corn, right?).
But when it comes down to bottles vs. cans, there is some disagreement. First, there’s this video from TitanTV sent to us by Civilization of Beer President Samuel Merritt. It would suggest that bottles are better. See, we didn’t see that coming at all.
Skeptical, we poked around the Internet and I Googled one of my favorite environmentally-friendly features, the reliable Ask Umbra column at Grist. Well, Umbra a qualified agreement.
We also dug up another column called Ask Leo at the Guardian Unlimited in the UK.
Leo tackles the beer packaging conundrum by saying that:
As a somewhat crude comparative measure of the energy demands that go into making glass bottles and cans, the Waste and Resources Action Programme (wrap.org.uk) uses the electricity required to power a television. It says that the manufacture of one glass bottle needs the same amount of energy as it takes to power a television set for 20 minutes, whereas an aluminium can needs three hours of the equivalent energy.
We aren’t mathematicians, and this math is certainly faulty. But, that looks like 9 bottles of beer against one can of beer.
We’d happily drink nine bottles for the equivalent environmental impact.
February 2nd, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Great question guys. The energy equivalent info is great but it only deals with the manufacturing side and forgets about the delivery and disposal. I examined this same question in my book (Fermenting Revolution, 2006) and what I found was that aluminum cans actually come out way ahead. The weight and less ideal shape of the glass bottles means it takes a lot more petroleum to ship them to drinkers and then to waste facilities after they’ve been used. The other advantage to aluminum is the ease and efficiency of their recycling - it is dramatically more efficient to recycle a can than a glass bottle.
However, I absolutely agree that kegs are an even better way to go. Growlers are another great choice. But even better is brewing your own beer at home. Water is the main ingredient in beer, so whether you’re buying cans or bottles, the main thing you’re really doing is shipping water around. Since homebrewing relies on the public water system for delivery it is far more efficient and then of course you can keg or bottle it in containers that are reusable over and over again.
Cheers,
Chris O’Brien, a.k.a. the Beer Activist