Between Denver and The Rocky Mountains of Colorado sits the quaint city of Golden, home of MillerCoors, the largest brewery in America. Back in 1873, Adolph Coors chose the site to brew his famous beer because of the high quality Rocky Mountain spring water available in the area. And now, MillerCoors has entered into sustainability history books as the first brewery of its size to become landfill-free.
MillerCoors has been taking steps over the past two years to increase their recycling efforts, investing $1 million for balers, choppers, compactors, colored cans and signage. Efforts to move to a no-waste facility started by removing personal trash cans then lead to a strict color-coded recycling bin system: yellow for aluminum, white for plastic shrink wrap, gray for scrap metal, and green for wood to eventually be ground into mulch.
Company leaders tracked monthly employee progress to gradually reduce the amount of waste they were sending to landfills. As goals were met, they were celebrated with gifts of T-shirts and tree saplings.
MillersCoors is now diverting 135 tons of waste out of landfills every month. Spent grains from the production of the 346 million gallons of beer are used to feed cattle. Discarded glass is sent to a nearby plant to create new bottles. Cardboard is sent to mills. Plastic wrapping is made into grist for composite decking at homes. And metals are taken to scrap yards for re-sale into global commodities markets.
The brewery in Golden is now the fifth of MillerCoors' eight U.S. breweries to gain landfill-free status. According to the company, no other breweries in the U.S. have managed to achieve this milestone.
Like MillersCoors, Dolphin Blue is also strongly committed to sustainability. We only carry products that are made in the U.S. and are, at minimum, made of 20% post-consumer recycled material. We should all cheers MillerCoors for their green efforts and toast to their conscious capitalism. Visit the Dolphin Blue store to purchase eco-friendly products for home and office.