I left green and cool Minnesota and my wife’s lake cabin to come back down here to hot and dry Texas for couple of weeks to do some necessary business, (But I find temps of 105 or above aren’t really too bad since the humidity is so low.)
While down here, I noticed a Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper item on the web that amused me: Because of a shortage of aluminum cans, the smaller brewers there are having a difficult time canning their brew. It seems cans were in short
It seems cans were in short supply across the country even before the COVID-19 outbreak last spring, but now, as bars, restaurants, and taprooms closed and Minnesotans had to stay at home and hoped to down some suds, “…a mad scramble for aluminum has resulted.” (Bummer.)
It seems, “The bigger breweries have a tendency to hoard stuff, they’re probably sitting on pallets and pallets of cans,” a small brewer explained. “We kind of buy to order, because we don’t have the warehouse space. If we can’t find any cans, we’re totally up the river.”
It appears the aluminum can supply chain shortfall “could have a profound long-term effect on Minnesota’s beloved craft brewing industry.” Already at least one small brewery has closed, due economic fallout from the pandemic, explained a spokesperson for the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild.
Unfortunately, if brewers can’t package and sell their product — it makes no difference if it’s in cans, bottles, kegs or pints — their business is jeopardized. In fact, last spring, some reportedly had to dump good beer (what other kind is there?) down the drain because there wasn’t a way to sell it.
Enough about that, it’s making me thirsty and it’s 104 out. Now from an article in the Resource Recycling newsletter. It’s about plastic (which of course, is not normally used for beer).
A company on the west coast, Brightmark, is looking for a huge amount of plastic … and when I say huge, it is. They want to get 2.4 billion pounds of it every year. This 2.4 billlion pounds is significantly greater than the 1.46 pounds exported all of last year.
The company plans to use plastics numbers 1-7 to convert it to fuel in facilities across the country. When the company put out a call for it last month, it was called the greatest solicitation for plastic waste ever.
A spokesperson for the company said one of the efforts of the project is to bring in the harder to recycle plastics. “Plastics 3-7, in particular, are not easily recycled with other technologies, and typically end up in landfills, incinerators, or sadly — in our oceans.” He added, “We’re proud to have a proven, breakthrough closed loop solution for transforming these raw materials back into useful products.”
The company is currently doing tests at one of their processing facilities. It involves “…a pyrolysis process to convert plastics into fuels and chemical feedstocks, including diesel, naphtha and wax.” The company believes its advanced plastic recycling projects (including a $260 million plant) will be operational by 2023 (Let’s wish them success in helping to make good use of those hard-to-recycle plastics).
Till next week, do have an enjoyable, healthy, and safe one.
