How Craft Beer Brewers Brought Bottle Recycling to Montana

[BlueMTexpat]

http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/montana-glass-bottle-recycling-craft-brewers-20150827

One BIL is a craft brewer in Billings. This made me think of him.

Cities and states around the nation are struggling to figure out ways to recycle glass without losing money. Glass prices are down, and the cost of hauling is often more than the value of the glass itself.

“There is no state out there that doesn’t have a glass problem,” says Dusti Johnson, a specialist in recycling and market development for Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality. But in Big Sky Country, dealing with discarded bottles is enough of a headache that the state just doesn’t do it. And that bothers a lot of residents.
...
Johnson says that “thousands” of people call her office to complain about the state’s lack of glass recycling, but the money to pay for it hasn’t become available. So far, conversations at the state legislature about raising taxes to pay for glass recycling have always stalled out.

But state-run programs aren’t the only way to keep bottles out of the landfill. Bayern Brewing, in Missoula, has purchased an industrial bottle-washing machine and many of the surrounding breweries have switched to using glass bottles compatible with the washing system. In the past three years, this cooperation between brewers has saved almost 2.5 million bottles from the landfills.

As a kid growing up in North Central MT, I used to make good pocket money from collecting glass bottles left along the RR tracks. In those days, we used to roam freely without fear in such places. I'm not so sure that I'd be as complacent about my grandkids doing so as my parents were with us. Times have changed - even in MT.

[Eleanors38]

1. That transport cost (and the weight of glass) caused an opposite effect...

in Austin when local brewer Austin Beerworks started canning exclusively. Even so, the local breweries must rely on a "portable" operation as there are no permanent canneries with re-cycling capabilities in the area, from what I hear. Sounds like the Montana outfits have set up a system to re-cycle, though the hard-wiring from house or pub is unclear.