What is the beer bottle recycling process?

Question

I need information on the recycling process once at the plant and the impact it has on the environment. For example are harsh chemicals used to clean up the bottles?

Answer 1

Hi there,

The Greater Vancouver Regional District has a simple, but good, pamphlet on glass recycling at http://www.gvrd.bc.ca/recycling-and-garb...  and from what I understand in Manitoba "refillable beer bottles (most brown-bottle s***w-capped) get inspected, washed, and sent back to breweries for reuse. Imported bottles and odd shaped bottles are sent for crushing and treated like all other recycled glass containers".  Interestingly, there is no facility to deal with other glass recycling in Manitoba so it gets turned into crushed glass to be used as fill in various projects such as roads.  For more info http://www.umreg.org/wiki/index.php?titl...

I can't find anywhere that indicates that any sort of harsh chemicals are used in the process.  As they are being washed with the intent of refilling them with a potable beverage I doubt it.

Answer 2

I actually went down the the "beer bottle recycling" place last week and asked just that.

Now I have two guys in my garage named Bruce and Sam.  I bring the bottles to them, they wash them, drive them back to the factory and fill them with beer.  Then they bring them back to me.  

The only downside is I have to feed them, and they are big guys.

Quit worrying about it.

Answer 3

They clean the bottles? I can't tell it from the taste of some of the commercial beers.

As a homebrewer, I have cleaned hundreds, if not thousands, of bottles. I can get away with a bleach-TSP solution if the bottle is dirty (mold, cigarette butts, or unidentifiable glop). If the bottle is rinsed after it is emptied, a sanitizer solution is enough. I suspect that the major brewers use the cheapest thing they can get away with, just as I do.