Market Brewing's Green Initiative // Invest In Our Planet
Building A Greener Future for our Families and Community
With the 2022 Earth Day official theme being Invest In Our Planet, now is the perfect time for any company to revisit some of their daily practices to see how they can progress to greener ways of operating. Throughout the last few years we have been developing our green initiative to help offset the environmental footprint of the company, as well as continuing to build a greener future for their families and local communities.We have put together a handful of highlights showcasing the new methods we have been working on and developing over the years to help with their greener path.
Recycling Programs
If you have picked up some Beer-to-Go from a craft brewery, more often than not you'll be walking out with a 4, 6, or 8 pack plastic carrier. Believe it or not these carriers have a name, Pak-Tech's, and they are made from 100% recycled containers. At the beginning of 2019 we introduced a Pak-Tech recycle program at the brewery.If someone brought back their used Pak-Tech carriers, even if they were from someone else, you will be rewarded with a complimentary beer to enjoy in the taproom or to go. Rather than having them used once and put into a recycling bin, having these brought back to Market (which are washed and then reused) helps keep the cost of beer down plus it allows them to reuse the carriers.
x10 six pack holders or x15 four pack holders equals an extra beer for take home or enjoy a pint at the brewery!
Similar to the Pak-Tech's, we also gain multiple uses out of our unbranded kraft cardboard x24 cases. Fifty five percent of our packaged products are put into these cases. After these are emptied, they are returned to the production area to be packaged into again. The brewery typically gets 3-4 uses out of each case before they fully lose their durability and need to be recycled in the traditional sense.
Reducing our Plastic Usage
Coming into 2022 we wanted to take the next step in helping to further reduce our plastic use. The largest plastic use that most people don't realize is sleeved and labeled cans. After doing some extensive research we have been able to connect with another growing small business based out of Quebec, Hart Print who exclusively offer digitally printed cans to also offset the growing plastic waste pollution. Over the course of 2022 we will be running through our remaining sleeves before moving everything to printed cans. We have already made the transition with a couple new releases and couldn't be more proud of how everything is turning out!
With having a couple of our beers available at LCBO’s, Grocery Stores and The Beer Store’s; all of these cases travel throughout the province and require case durability along the way. To achieve this, typically most craft beverage companies shrink wrap (plastic wrap) their individual cases to prevent product from being damaged in transit. This is the most cost effective way of keeping everything safe however it only adds to the growing plastic waste pollution. With all our cases that do require extensive travel we made the leap to package these products in fully enclosed cardboard cases to eliminate the need of individually shrink wrapping their cases!
The Switch to SuperEnd®
In September of 2019 we also made the switch to a new type of can end; or as most people know it simply as: the top of the can. The SuperEnd® was designed to provide increased panel strength and it also reduces metal usage by 10% compared to the traditional LOE Ends that most companies use. Since switching to the SuperEnd® the brewery has packaged over 650,000 cans (as of April 1st 2022) which has removed 375lb of metal (0.26g per end) from being manufactured and reducing overall energy and recycle waste. 
To learn more about SuperEnd® visit here.
With the implementation of these different practices over the last few years Market Brewing feel that we are on a much greener path and have made the leap to Invest In Our Planet. We will continue to better ourselves as well as our communities. To join along on this adventure and learn more about our new developments and initiatives going forward follow them on social media or subscribe to their mailing list.