MillerCoors Colorado Brewery Goes Zero Waste

MillerCoors LLC said its Golden Brewery in Golden, Colo., now sends zero waste to landfills.

The Chicago-based beer company said in a news release that with its four other breweries that are landfill free MillerCoors is eliminating an average of 135 tons of waste monthly that previously went to landfills. MillerCoors claimed that no other brewery has achieved landfill-free status with its breweries.

MillerCoors began reducing the waste it sent to landfills from the Golden Brewery in 2011, complementing process improvements with nearly $1 million in new infrastructure and equipment, including new choppers, bailers and compactors.

The brewer beneficially reuses or recycles 100 percent of waste, including all glass, paperboard, plastics, metal and brewing byproducts, such as spent grain. Additional waste, such as cafeteria waste and floor sweepings, is sent to a waste-to-energy facility.

MillerCoors other breweries that send zero waste to landfills are in Trenton, Ohio; Shenandoah, Va.; Irwindale, Calif.; and Eden, N.C.