Packaging
Choosing the right packaging is one of the biggest decisions that craft brewers have to make. The impact of aluminum, glass, steel, cardboard, and paper products can be enormous, in some cases the environmental impact is bigger than the beverage itself.
At Vermont Craft Mead we use two forms of packaging: cans and kegs. While the decision to move away from glass bottles was largely driven by industry forces, we're very glad it was. The full scope impact of aluminum is much smaller than glass (mostly having to do with shipping weight), and reusable kegs are even better.
Many packaging suppliers are surprisingly cagey about how much recycled material they use, what their actual energy expenditures are, and so on. One of the two companies we source our cans from, Ardagh, has an excellent resource for their sustainability progress and goals. It's available in its entirety here and is updated regularly.
We are also proud to use 100% recycled and 100% recyclable PakTechs. Between 2012 and 2018, PakTech redirected 46,236,732 lbs of plastic from landfills.
By using cans, we also completely eliminate our paperboard (6-pack holders) and reduce our cardboard use by 75%.
At Vermont Craft Mead we use two forms of packaging: cans and kegs. While the decision to move away from glass bottles was largely driven by industry forces, we're very glad it was. The full scope impact of aluminum is much smaller than glass (mostly having to do with shipping weight), and reusable kegs are even better.
Many packaging suppliers are surprisingly cagey about how much recycled material they use, what their actual energy expenditures are, and so on. One of the two companies we source our cans from, Ardagh, has an excellent resource for their sustainability progress and goals. It's available in its entirety here and is updated regularly.
We are also proud to use 100% recycled and 100% recyclable PakTechs. Between 2012 and 2018, PakTech redirected 46,236,732 lbs of plastic from landfills.
By using cans, we also completely eliminate our paperboard (6-pack holders) and reduce our cardboard use by 75%.
