Our crew have been working on our mission statement. One part of that mission includes a commitment to the ENVIRONMENT. We want to do everything we can to minimize our negative impact on the Earth and positively contribute to how our community helps.
Here are a baker’s dozen of things we are doing to reduce, reuse, and recycle:
1 – From day one, we’ve made sure we recycle as much as possible (note the red bins in the picture). We also insisted on getting a cardboard dumpster out back so our cardboard trash doesn’t get mixed in with regular trash.
2 – When we can’t use reusable glasses for drinks, we use either recycle-able plastic cups OR compostable cups.
3 – We learned there is a recycling program for the plastic six-pack rings that often accompany canned beers (and the Andy’s Root Beer that we offer), so we recycle those too. BRING US YOUR SIX-PACK RINGS AND WE’LL RECYCLE THEM TOO!
4 – We have a local farmer come take our used grains which is used as feed for their farming endeavors.
5 – We recently found Sandi Glass Creations through our Artisans of the Ozarks events, and she is re-purposing our empty liquor bottles into artwork!
6 – Head Brewer Amy learned that the flippy tops on the 360 Vodka (a MO company) that we serve can be sent back to the distillery and reused (they even foot the bill for the shipping!), so we participate in that program.
7 – We recently learned of TerraCycle which covers lots of recycling programs. In there is a cigarette recycling program, so we just started testing out how that works. Basically, they will pay shipping for us to send them all cigarette waste EXCEPT for the cardboard packaging (the butts, unsmoked tobacco, and even the cellophane wrappers).
8 – We try to recover some of our water waste in the brewing process and plan to enhance our efforts as we can afford to.
9 – It’s true that we have plastic straws. We bought a lot of them soon after we opened. Once we have used up the ones we have in stock, we will replace them with a better product (likely compostable straws OR paper straws). In the meantime, we only give people straws upon request, and we ask them to reuse the same straw for all their drinks for the evening.
10 – This is an easy one that everyone can do: We reuse our “Wal-Mart sacks” as trash bags. Heck, when Phil recently picked elderflowers for an upcoming keg of Gose, he used a clean Wal-Mart sack to collect the flowers (NOTE: 1 full sack of elderflowers were used!).
11 – We work to compost as much plant waste as we produce (such as used coffee grounds, unusual parts of fruits, and so on).
12 – In our upcoming Ozarks Community Book Fair, we will be accepting donations of books, magazines, and comics to find them new homes (“reuse”).
13 – For the baker’s dozen: When Assistant Brewer Matt is carbonating a batch of beer, he works hard to recover as much CO2 as possible.
We may well do more than this (it’s hard to keep track of everything we do lol), and we are committed to doing more and more.
***We also encourage all of you to start somewhere. ***
Do you live in town?
Ask the city for the FREE red bins for your recycling. Please call Sanitation at 255-2330 to get started or learn more.
Don’t live in town?
Please bring in your recycling and drop it off at the Transfer Station (see the above link) or drop off at a friend’s place in town. Phil and Amber bring in their recycling each week.
Bring us your six-pack rings (and also the snap on kind; we will clean and reuse the snap on type soon).
Start a compost pile OR just chuck your compostable waste directly on your garden.
Ask your favorite local businesses if they are recycling. If they aren’t, encourage them to start. It really doesn’t take much effort to make a small change to company policies!
If you read this far, thank you! It indicates you care as much as we do. Please post in the comments what you are doing, suggestions for more things we could do, or any questions you may have. Cheers to you!
