Empty isn’t necessarily the end for a beer bottle: Sonoma County’s Conscious Container launches pilot effort to collect, clean, reuse
One-time use bottles of beer, wine and soda could be eliminated if Caren McNamara has her way.
Companies stopped reusing bottles on a large scale basis in the United States in the mid-1900s when consumer preferences changed, making recycling less attractive. Now they are rethinking that business model, knowing that reusable bottles is cost efficient.
“We will be the first to market with a refillable bottle,” McNamara, founder and CEO of Conscious Container, said. “Refillable glass bottle when designed as one can have 15 to 25 turns. It really depends on how it is designed. The heavier the bottle the more turns it can take.”
Under a three-month pilot program that began in the North Bay on Nov. 23, Conscious Container will sell, collect and wash bottles from two brands of Anheuser-Busch beer. Each bottle will be stamped “refillable” and have a QR code for tracing.
Non-alcoholic beverages are in the long-term plans for being refillable.
Bottles that meet the quality standards will be refilled with product and recirculated an additional time.
McNamara plans to open a bottle washing plant next to Bear Republic Brewing Co. in Cloverdale that likely will cost between $7 million and $10 million. Hundreds of people being paid a livable wage could be employed by Conscious Container. Right now, the company is a team of five people working out of Sonoma, the North Lake Tahoe area, and Reno, with the intention most will relocate to the North Bay.
“We need to be in a location where we have large volumes of bottles. We need millions of bottles through the facility to be profitable,” McNamara explained. Being in the middle of California’s Wine Country ensures there will be a continuous need for bottles. Plus, there are multiple breweries in the region.
Her goal is to have an array of businesses that want to use reusable bottles be on board by the second quarter of 2021, as well as have the bottle collection infrastructure in place. Bottles from 12 ounces to 750 milliliters will be able to be washed at the future facility.
Until Conscious Container gets its wash center operating, which could be in 2022, the company intends to contract with washing plants in Washington and Montana to handle bottles recycled under the program. The company eventually plans to expand not only to other breweries but wineries.
Looking for money
McNamara’s focus now is on attracting capital in order to further the business. She has applied for a $500,000 grant from CalRecycle. Conscious Container has raised $1.5 million in seed money. Anheuser-Busch is funding the pilot after Conscious Container ran successful smaller programs in Reno and Truckee.
“Returnable glass is an integral part of our DNA at Anheuser-Busch InBev who currently operates the world’s largest returnable bottle supply chain. This has been going on since we began using glass bottles over 100 years ago,” Angie Slaughter, vice president of sustainability at Anheuser-Busch, said. “In 2018, we launched the 100+ Accelerator program to invest in and grow startups that solve our most pressing sustainability challenges. Over the past two years, we have accelerated 36 startups across 15 different countries. During the nine-month program, we provide mentorship, training and, most importantly, up to $100,000 to pilot within our supply chain to prove the viability of their solution.”
Anheuser-Busch reuses bottles in Mexico, Canada, Europe, Brazil and South Africa. Other companies, like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, also are refilling bottles in other countries. However, it is no longer a popular concept in the United States. Anheuser-Busch said it discounted its reusable bottle program in the United States in the 1900s and then again in the early 2000s.
According to the EPA, three-quarters of glass bottles purchased in the United States are not reused in any manner, including being recycled. In 2018, 7.6 million tons of glass containers ended up in a landfill.
“It is our hope that by kicking off this partnership with Conscious Container, we can take the next step in addressing the issue of glass in landfills,” Slaughter said. “Our goal is to have 100% of our packaging to be made from majority recycled content or to be returnable by 2025.”
Local support
Peter Kruger, owner of Dahlia & Sage Community Market in Cloverdale, has been working with McNamara on the refillable bottle concept for more than three years. He would like to wave a magic wand to immediately have the business operating at full speed.
Kruger is also the chief operating officer at Bear Republic. Having Conscious Container lease land next door would be a natural fit, he said, especially with the brewery having an extensive wastewater treatment plant on site.