For the brewing industry, the accomplishment is significant. No other breweries, including small craft or large national, have managed to achieve landfill-free status.
Beginning in 2011, MillerCoors began reducing the municipal waste sent from the Golden Brewery to landfill, complementing process improvements with nearly $1m in new infrastructure and equipment, including new choppers, bailers and compactors.
The brewery beneficially reuses or recycles 100% of waste, including all glass, paperboard, plastics, metal and brewing byproducts, such as spent grain.
Residual refuse, such as cafeteria waste and floor sweepings, is sent to a waste-to-energy facility and used as an alternative fuel source to generate electricity.
“Environmental stewardship is part of our company DNA, and we challenge ourselves daily to be more sustainable throughout our operations,” said MillerCoors CEO, Tom Long. “Through our commitment to continuously improving, we’ve found a way to eliminate trips to the landfill and developed a zero-waste model that’s scalable to our other facilities.”
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