MillerCoors believes waste is simply a resource out of place and they are committed to finding ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle whatever and whenever they can.  In 2009, they exceeded their 2015 goal for waste reduction by eliminating 20 percent of the amount of waste sent to landfill.

 

More than 99% of all brewery waste – including glass, paperboard, plastics, metals and byproducts - is recycled or reused at MillerCoors.  For example, leftover barley malt – or spent grain – is sold to local farms for animal feed while brewers’ yeast is sold to food companies for use in canned soups, gravies, frozen entrees and pet food.  Some byproducts are used to fertilize hay fields on site, among others.

 

Three MillerCoors breweries – in Trenton, Ohio, Shenandoah, Virginia, and Irwindale, California – have achieved zero waste to landfill and currently are not sending any waste to the landfill.

 

At the Trenton, Ohio brewery, the key to zero waste to landfill success was making it about the people involved and their commitment and buy-in.

 

Denise Quinn, Tenton Brewery VP and Plant Manager, explains the key was asking key questions such as, “How can we make it [recycling] easy for the employees? How can we make it simple? How can we make it something that they can be proud of and look at what they’ve done with regards to the communities that they work and live in?”

 

Dave Klante, MillerCoors Vice President of Engineering & Packaging says the zero waste to landfill campaign is about employee involvement and engagement.

 

“It is really a culture change,” Klante says.