10 Breweries With Brilliant Beer Packaging

By Michelle Woo

From http://blogs.ocweekly.com/

​

We hate to admit it, but we've all been known to judge a beer by its label. (Well, hipsters more so. Do you really think they chug PBR because it's delicious?)

With a dizzying kaleidoscope of beer bottles and on today's shelves, standout packaging is more important than ever. Here are 10 brands and breweries that have teamed up with the right designers to create products that beg to be seen.

10. Bard's Beer

Hunt Adkins

Packaging by ​Hunt Adkins

The niftiest thing about Bard's Beer bottles aren't the labels, as simple and sleek as they are, but the bottle caps, which are printed with weird questions that are perfect for pondering and discussing over a beer. Would most ninjas also excel at dancing? What kind of sweater would Genghis Khan have worn? Can ducks laugh? New York-based Bard's, by the way, makes America's first gluten-free sorghum beer.

9. Red Brick

22Squared

​Packaging by 22Squared

Love the charming, down-home labels and carriers of Red Brick, a craft beer made by Atlanta Brewing Company. The description of its Dog Days Ale is, "Like jumping into a swimming hole lips first." Thirsty yet?

8. Hell Yeah Beer

Dirk Behlau for Hell Yeah Beer

​You would just feel hardcore while drinking this beer. Its ingredients: "water, hops, malt and rock ´n´ roll."

7. Grimm Brothers Brewhouse

​Packaging by Tenfold Collective

Damsels aren't so distressed in these goth-inspired labels for the Colorado-based brewery.

6. The Bruery

​OC's The Bruery makes some of the classiest, eye-catching, most elegant labels out there.

5. Pembroke Craft Brewery

Packaging by Gary Head

Okay, this just appeals to the girl in me. You can reuse the bottles as flower vases!

4. Left Hand Brewing Company

​These intricate illustrations could be collector's items. Each tells a trippy story.

​

3. Rush River Brewing Co.

Oh Beautiful Beer

​Packaging by Westwerk Design

Again . . . so pretty!

2. Great Divide Brewing Co.

​

Always bold, distinctive and statement-making.

1. 21st Amendment Brewery

​Heads will turn the moment you pop the top on these iconic cans.

First Packaging-Free, Zero-Waste Grocery Store In US Coming To Austin, Texas

by Rachel Cernansky, Boulder, Colorado

from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Image: bcmom via flickr

It's gotten harder and harder over the years to avoid excess packaging when shopping for everyday items, but plans are in the works for a store in Austin (also the home of Whole Foods) that will specialize in local and organic ingredients, but more importantly, will eliminate all packaging from the store. If it succeeds and the bulk trend catches on, the environmental footprint—petroleum consumption and transportation emissions specifically—of our country's grocery runs could be slashed pretty quickly.

In.gredients plans to become the country's very first "package-free, zero waste grocery store." GOOD describes the store in this fitting and awesome way: "It's as if the specialty bulk food section rebelled and took over the rest of a traditional grocery store."

GOOD outlines the benefits of bulk food in numbers:

Americans add 570 million pounds of food packaging to their landfills each day, while pre-packaged foods force consumers to buy more than they need, stuffing their bellies and their trash bins: 27 percent of food brought into U.S. kitchens ends up getting tossed out.

A lot of supermarkets now do have bulk food sections for dry goods, but they're obviously a minor part of a much larger store that specializes in bulk packaging. And buying liquids in bulk is not even an option.

Bringing Bulk-Purchasing Back
There used to be stores around the country that had bulk supplies and allowed you to bring refillable containers for those more difficult-to-buy-in-bulk items, like liquid soap and laundry detergent, but those stores have closed, or at least stopped providing the bulk option, one by one. Whole Foods does have a small section for bulk liquid soaps and other small stores likely do as well (feel free to share info about any such stores in the comments below), but again, these sections are all dwarfed by aisles and aisles of plastic bottles and excess packaging.

As long as bulk the alternative and doesn't dominate the store, it's not going to influence people's buying habits—and eliminate waste—on a large scale.

Reducing the Waste Stream
Here are some more numbers for you: about 50 percent of plastic waste in the U.S. is said to come from packaging and containers. According to the EPA, about 31 percent of all municipal solid waste in the U.S. was containers and packaging in 2008. That's 76,760 thousand tons—and less than half of that gets recycled.

Eliminating the option for packaging completely at the store means also eliminating a huge chunk of our nation's waste stream in one easy step.

If a store like In.gredients succeeds, will it push big brands to start providing bulk options in chain stores, and those chain stores to accept and promote those options? It'll be huge if we reach a point where you can bring a refillable bottle into Walmart or Target and fill it with shampoo or laundry detergent, and leave the store carrying all your groceries with no more packaging than you entered with.

In.gredients co-founder Christian Lane said in a press release: "Truth be told, what's normal in the grocery business isn't healthy for consumers or the environment... In addition to the unhealthiness associated with common food processing, nearly all the food we buy in the grocery store is packaged, leaving us no choice but to continue buying packaged food that's not always reusable or recyclable."

This is all, however, only once In.gredients raises the funds it needs to launch, which it is trying to do at IndieGoGo.com.

More on the benefits of buying in bulk:
Unpackaged: A Success Story
6 Best Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint at the Grocery Store
Save Money on Organic Food: Join a Natural Foods Co-op
Incredible Bulk

Pepsi Ups Ante on Plant-Based Bottles with 100% Non-Plastic Bottle

By Jonathan Bardelline
From: http://www.greenbiz.com/

PURCHASE, NY — PepsiCo announced a response to Coca-Cola's PlantBottle, but unlike Coke's bottle, which is only 30 percent plant-based at the time, Pepsi says its will be completely derived from plants.
Pepsi will make its bottles out of switch grass, pine bark and corn husks, and like with Coke's PlantBottle, they're using natural materials to make PET plastic, so it can be recycled along with their current petroleum-based plastic bottles.

The beverage giant hopes to also use orange and potato peels, oat hulls and other agricultural byproducts from its Tropicana, Quaker and other operations in the future to make the bottles.
Pepsi will do a pilot run of the plant-based bottles in 2012, followed by commercialization based on the results of the test run.

While Coca-Cola beat Pepsi to putting out drinks in bottles made from plants first, Pepsi has the chance to put out the first recyclable bottle derived entirely from plants by a major company.
Coca-Cola's PlantBottles, which are also being used for Heinz ketchup and Odwalla juices, are still 70 percent petroleum-based. Scott Vitters, the company's global director of sustainable packaging, wrote in a GreenBiz.com post last year:

Our PlantBottle packaging is made by converting natural sugars found in plants into a key ingredient for making PET plastic. For those who want the technical specifics, we've innovated a way to develop plant-based MEG, a key component in PET plastic. PlantBottle is up to 30 percent plant-based because MEG is 30 percent of the total composition of PET plastic by weight. We still have more work to do to crack the code on a plant-based TA, which is the other 70 percent of PET plastic, but we know it is feasible.

_{Pepsi bottles - CC license by Clean Wal-Mart (Flickr)}

Green Spray Cleaner is Empty Bottle that Lasts 3 Years

By Jonathan Bardelline
From: http://www.greenbiz.com/

OAKLAND, CA — What Method did for rethinking laundry detergent and how it's used, Replenish wants to do the same for household spray cleaners.

Born from an idea company founder Jason Foster had while ironing more than four years ago, Replenish is introducing a line of cleaners, but is selling only empty spray bottles - which will last at least three years - and concentrated cleaner mix.

Although Replenish isn't the first to make concentrated cleaners, it has developed a wholly unique bottle design and system, just as Method rethought how laundry detergent should be used with its 8x concentrated detergent that's dispensed by pumping instead of pouring.

"We had a great opportunity with a blank canvas to say, 'How should you build a bottle?'" Foster said.

Replenish's bottle is made so that the pods of cleaner concentrate screw into the bottom of it. To make the cleaner, you turn the bottle upside down, squeeze the concentrate pod to fill up a measuring cup built into the inside of the bottle, and add water.

Other concentrated cleaner brands like IQ, Ecodiscoveries and a no-longer-produced line from Arm & Hammer rely on using small bottles of concentrate, one per bottle of cleaner. Replenish's pods hold enough concentrate for four bottles and can stay attached to the bottle as long as needed. Ecodiscoveries' system involves pouring bottles of concentrate into the main bottle, and IQ's includes placing the cartidges of concentrate inside the bottle before inserting the spray nozzle.

Benefits for All

On the environmental side, Replenish's products result in 90 percent less plastic, oil and carbon dioxide emissions compared to using other cleaners over the course of a year. By shipping empty bottles, truckloads are lighter. And since the idea is for consumers to reuse one bottle over and over while buying only pods, the smaller physical footprint of the pods would lead to fewer trucks trips and other storage savings. Foster said it would take 1 semi-truck of pods to equal the amount of product in 15 semi-trucks of typical cleaners.

The bottle and pods are made of PET, the commonly-recycled plastic identified by the #1 resin code, although the spray nozzle, which is also entirely plastic, is not.

Since the spray nozzle doesn't contain any metal, it has a longer lifespan than ones that have metal coils, which can rust and fail. Foster estimates the life of the bottle at around three years. "Can it last longer? Absolutely," he said. "There is no designed obsolescence in this bottle."

The actual length of the nozzle's life is fuzzy because when it went through a test to see how many trigger pulls it takes before the trigger fails, it lasted all the way through the test, which maxes out at 10,000 pulls. The downside to an all-plastic spray trigger is that is costs twice as much as typical spray triggers.

The actual cleaner was developed with the environment in mind as well. The ingredients are 98 percent plant-derived and modified seed-oil-based cleaning agents, sugar fermented ethanol, deionized water, food grade colorants, fragrance and natural essential oil.

The cleaners, Foster said, are non-toxic, readily biodegradable (meaning the majority of the product breaks down within 28 days) and pH neutral, giving them the same profile as water.

As for the cost, the bottle and one pod will be sold together for $7.99 and the individual pods will sell for $3.99. Due to the concentrating that has been happening with laundry detergents, Foster doesn't expects customers to be thrown off by the $8 price tag for mostly air. He's also hoping to attract customers with the environmental aspects, as well as the convenience the bottle provides.

Replenish is initially launching online at Alice.com, which creates storefronts for companies, but Foster is in negotiations to sell Replenish through some natural-focused retailers. He also received interest from bigger retailers that he wasn't expecting, he said. But for the launch, he's focusing on getting people to use the product and hoping they spread the word. "This is about building advocates and wanting to be with people who think through the products they buy," he said.

An Idea Born From Ironing

Before developing Replenish, Foster was an equity research analyst, but left the field in 2004. One day while ironing, he thought about how useful it would be to have a cleaner that you can use in an iron. Then he imagined it would be a concentrated cleaner, but realized an ironing board wouldn't have enough space for a bottle of concentrate and something to mix it in.

Then, he wondered what it would look like to stack the concentrate and the mixing bottle on top of one another.

Foster started patent work on the system about four years ago and founded Replenish in 2008. Since the inception of the idea, he spent over $1 million in engineering the bottle. Some of that was his own savings, some came from his family and some came from angel investors.

While shopping the idea around, he also ran into plenty of resistance to the idea of completely changing how cleaning products are packaged. "You couldn't ask for a better business than selling 95 percent water in bottles that people will keep buying," Foster said.

He also made a number of allies, though, that helped the product along: Eastman Chemical, which supplied the PET resin and provided advice; designers who helped flesh out his idea through freelance work; Radius Product Development, the design arm of precision injection molding company Nypro; and McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), which helped Foster look at every aspect of the product through the lens of Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) design.

Hooking up with MBDC also helped with attracting angel investors, and Foster said Replenish is in the process of having its products evaluated for C2C certification.

The actual engineering of the bottle provided the most hurdles. First off, Foster wanted to make the bottle with PET. Due to the intricate and specific design of the threading that the pods screw into, the two valves in the bottle and the built-in measuring cup, it couldn't be blow-molded like the common cleaning bottle.

The parts had to be precision molded, and the base of the bottle had to be ultrasonically welded to the main part, something that hadn't been done before, Foster said. "There were all these unknowns before, and now we've worked through them," he said.

Due to that, though, the bottle doesn't contain any recycled content. Foster said that due to concerns about the quality of plastic in the recycling stream, and since it was already a technological leap to do what they did with PET, Replenish is sticking with the PET resins it knows will work for now, but will be doing trials with recycled content.

_{Images courtesy of Replenish}

New Wine In Old Bottles: The Greenest Way To Drink

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto

from: http://www.treehugger.com/

Images via Inhabitat

Whenever there is a discussion about wine packaging, TreeHugger comes down on the side of local and refillable. We return often to TreeHugger Emeritus Ruben Anderson's article in the Tyee: New Wine in Old Bottles, where he notes that in France, wine bottles are refilled an average of eight times. Now they even have computerized wine dispensers where you can fill your own jugs with vin de table for about two bucks a litre.

It is much like filling up your car at the self-service gas station, and at 1.45 euros per litre, it is about the same price. (gas in France is 1.41 euros per litre). It isn't a new idea; Dr. Vino writes:

Astrid Terzian introduced this concept that hearkens back to a bygone era when wine would arrive in Paris shops in tonneaux and consumers would bring their own flagons to fill. But today, Terzian says, she started this scheme in fall 2008 to fill a niche, tapping into two key themes, environmental awareness and the economy.

Dr. Vino also suggests that the system is coming to the States within the year. But every time we have this discussion, people note that in the litigious USA, somebody will get sick and sue. There are people trying to do refillable bottles in America; Pend d'Oreille Winery sells wine in a refillable 1.5 litre jug. Wines and Vines writes:

The economic benefits have sweetened the environmental proposition that initially inspired the program. Since a local market for glass recyclables doesn't exist in Sandpoint, bottles were typically reintegrated with solid waste and sent to an Oregon landfill. Pend d'Oreille's program helps reduce that waste stream.

In British Columbia a lot of wineries are looking at refillable bottles.

Preliminary economic models developed by Dr. Ian Stuart of the Faculty of Management at the University of British Columbia-Okanagan in Kelowna pegged the per-bottle savings of the program at 46 cents (Canadian) per bottle (based on an annual flow of 840,000 bottles through the system). Smaller wineries typically pay between 85 cents to $1.20 Canadian (CA$1 = US$0.94) per new bottle.

In Michigan, you can bring your own bottles to Left Foot Charleys.

It's cheaper and better for the environment, obviously the greenest alternative. But what do we get peddled as green?

Boxes aren't Green

We noted earlier Ruben's wonderful article, where he questioned the green-ness of boxed wine, writing

While looking for wine in refilled bottles I had the misfortune to see one of those shrill displays of wine in Tetra Paks; this crap is being flogged as a "Green Solution." It's junk like this that drives me to the liquor store in the first place. Tetra Paks are here to save us because they weigh less, so less climate-changing diesel fuel is required to lug them across the ocean from Australia. Dear God, where to start?

He does go on, read the rest in Which Is Greener, Wine Bottle or Box? Neither.

TreeHugger Jenna, who does life cycle analyses for her day job, had a close look at boxed wine and concluded that it did have a lower carbon footprint than bottled.

Overall, the study concludes that the paperboard systems have the lowest total energy as well as the lowest greenhouse gas emissions; the glass systems have the highest total energy as well as the highest greenhouse gas emissions.

More in Hitting the Bottle or Hitting the Box? The Debate Continues

But as was noted in a post on the recycling of Tetra Pak,

Green is reusable. Green is refillable. Green is not disposable and downcylable, for the lucky 20% of Americans who have access to it, and landfill for the 80% who don't. Tetra Pak is the most elaborate greenwashing scheme ever, and they are doing a very good job of it.

(although I must point out that Pablo disagrees with me in his Defense of Tetrapak)

Others are trying to reduce their impact by putting wine in pouches, which are then put in a cardboard box. It is popular in Europe but has only six percent of the market in the USA, as everyone evidently thinks it is only for plonk suitable for rubbies. Alan Dufrêne, a wine consultant, blames the industry. "Don't put low quality wine in bag-in-box packaging," Dufrêne told wine makers. "It will only reduce its appeal." More in Which Is Greener, Wine Bottle or Box? Depends on the Box

PET Bottles were developed for the British market, so that yobs wouldn't kill each other at football games. Their claim is that they are lighter and smaller, taking less energy to ship. The bottles " are 88 percent lighter than glass bottles, and use less energy to manufacture than glass bottles. The lightweight plastic bottles also reduce distribution emissions." John isn't convinced and writes Marks & Spencer Delivers Wine in Plastic Bottles, but Is It Greener?

April wrote about Yealands Estate wine, packed in PET, noting that "its Full Circle sauvignon blanc bottles are 89% lighter than 750ml glass bottles, which means they generate 54% less greenhouse gas emissions and use nearly 20% less energy to produce than glass. " Ways to Wine: From Bottle to Box, Back to Bottle

April is also fond of wine in pouches, noting that they are a twentieth of the weight of glass, and quotes a study:

Even if 100% of wine bottles were recycled and 0% of wine pouches were recycled (because by the way, the mixed-material pouches are NOT currently recyclable) pouches would still have less environmental impact and contribute less waste.

It is a difficult issue. As Matt calculated in his post Ship or Truck Transport Makes All the Difference in Wine's Carbon Footprint , it doesn't really take a lot of energy to move wine by ship around the world. In fact, driving to the wine store probably has a bigger footprint than shipping the bottle from New Zealand. But it still takes a lot of energy to make a bottle or a box, energy that would be saved if we could refill our own jugs and bottles right from the tank. But notwithstanding Dr. Vino's optimism, I don't expect to see it any time soon.

Puma's 'Clever Little Bag' Slashes Sneaker Packaging

By GreenerDesign Staff

From: http://www.greenbiz.com/

Herzogenaurach, Germany — Puma's new shoe packaging changes the idea of the shoebox by wrapping footwear in a simple cardboard structure held in place by a reusable bag.

The new packaging, which will hit stores in late 2011, was designed in collaboration with Fuseproject, a firm led by Yves Béhar, whose previous work includes One Laptop Per Child and PACT Underwear.

Puma's packaging, which it's calling its "Clever Little Bag," will contain 65 percent less cardboard by using a bag made of recycled plastic as the outer layer that holds the inner cardboard structure (which has no top) together. The bag's handles slip through a hole at one end of the inner box, securing the bag to the cardboard and providing a plastic-bag-free way to carry the shoes.

Puma has also eliminated all plastic bags and tissue that typically come in shoeboxes.

Due to using fewer materials - 8,500 fewer tons of paper, to be specific - and the new packaging's lighter weight, Puma expects to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 10,000 tons per year and water, energy and diesel use by 60 percent. That works out to 1 million liters of water, 20 million megajoules of electricity, 1 million liters of fuel oil and 500,000 liters of diesel.

Puma is also changing the bags it uses for it apparel. The company is first reducing the amount of bagging material it needs by folding T-shirts an extra time before packaging them up, and it is also replacing plastic bags with biodegradable ones. Puma stores will also swap out their plastic and paper bags for biodegradable versions. Altogether, the apparel and shopping bag changes will cut plastic use by 912 tons and paper by 293 tons.

Recycled Pizza Boxes Hungry For a Bigger Slice of the Market

By GreenerDesign Staff
From http://www.greenerdesign.com/

New York, NY — The Green Box pizza box, made of recycled cardboard and designed to reduce waste, has been picked up for nationwide distribution by FoodBizSupply.com.

The Green Box, created by E.C.O. Inc., looks like any other pizza box, but it contains 100 percent recycled content. Because recycling centers do not take paper or cardboard that is soiled by food, they do not accept pizza boxes. The Green Box takes a type of packaging that would get throw away anyway and turns it into something with a second purpose.

The top of the box is perforated so that it can be torn into 4 squares - to use instead of paper plates or dishes that would need to be washed - and the bottom can be folded in half for storing pizza instead of using aluminum foil or containers.

FoodBizSupply.com is an online distributor that focuses on products with a sustainable side to them, and is the latest addition to Green Box's distribution network.

"They have a very wide, broad range of customers," said William Walsh, founder and CEO of E.C.O. "It's a different level of customer, too. It's a customer that is much more socially aware, so I feel the partnership and having distribution through FoodBizSupply is going to be key to our business."

The Green Box is also being distributed to Italian restaurants through Roma Foods, and through the northeast U.S. by Mansfield Paper and Imperial Bag and Paper.

Walsh said he is searching for other nationwide distributors, and that a major organic grocer, which he could not name, is using the Green Box on a regional basis. In addition, two of the top pizza chains are conducting tests and market research on the box.

Green Box's website will be getting a facelift soon, Walsh said, and will include a way for people to find restaurants and pizza shops that use the Green Box, as well as a way for restaurants to find Green Box distributors.

Plastic Surgery: Dissecting Barbie Packaging

• WallStats.com
• http://www.mint.com/
  

If you spent most of your Christmas morning tearing and swearing as you tried to get the packages open, you may be wondering if all of this wasteful packaging is really necessary. Consider these facts about the role of packaging in our consumer economy. One third of our waste comes from packaging from the 430 billion dollar global packaging industry. That’s larger than the global auto manufacturing industry. So what can you, as an individual, do about it? Here is one look at the disposable stuff that comes with a famous 11.5 inch doll, herself an icon of American consumer culture.

M&M's Valentine's Day "Cupid's Mix" Is 10% Lighter Than Regular M&M Packs

By Carey

Do you want to lose weight for Valentine's Day? Then M&M's special Valentine's Day Cupid's Mix is just for you! Since they're 10% lighter than M&M's usual holiday pack, they'll help you lose money too. More proof that M&M's Cupid traded in his arrow for the Grocery Shrink Ray after the jump...

Tipster Lee writes:

I probably buy too many M&Ms. I often buy the medium-sized bags when they're on sale (for $1.99 or less per bag). Perhaps I could get them cheaper if I bought larger bags from Costco, but it's more convenient if I buy them from one of the numerous drugstores I frequent in my neighborhood.

For quite a while now the medium-sized bags have been 14 oz. Yesterday I picked up a few bags of the Valentine Day theme M&Ms and I immediately knew that something was amiss. The bags seemed lighter. Indeed, the weight was listed as 12.60oz, which happens to be exactly 10% less than 14oz.

I suppose they could claim that only the Valentine M&Ms are like this, but previous "special" themes have always been 14oz (i.e. the Halloween and Autumn Mix bags shown below.) And at the store I was at, both the regular Medium bags (which are still 14oz) and the vday bags had the same "regular" price of $3.79, making people believe that they are basically the same amount of product. I believe that they're testing the shrink ray waters and will eventually shrink the standard Medium-sized bags (and possibly also the Small and Larger bags).