As human beings, we could probably get by drinking nothing but water. And as long as we only ever took it straight from the tap or the well, we might never need containers for liquid. Imagine the amount of waste we’d never create!
But variety is truly the spice of life, and we like to drink all sorts of things to slake our thirst. Which means that we need containers to be able to get tasty drinks from the people who make them to the people who consume them.
And it turns out that the ecology of making, distributing, and recycling those containers has all kinds of impact on the planet, the most egregious of which are those islands of waste plastic floating in the oceans.
At Heartwood, we’ve been using glass bottles for our ciders since we began producing them. The clear glass bottles we use show off the colour of their contents, and they have a certain gratifying heft to them. And there’s just something aesthetically pleasing about the way a glass bottle dignifies a dinner table.
But for the most part, the glass bottles you dutifully return to The Beer Store for your deposit refund don’t get re-used. They do get recycled – ground up and turned into other products – but generally not re-used as drink bottles.
In our ongoing efforts to minimize our ecological footprint, we began investigating cans a while ago. The thing about aluminum is that it’s lightweight and compact, which reduces transportation costs. It’s also almost infinitely recyclable, which means an aluminum can you return will quite possibly have its next life as… another can.
We were very compelled by the environmental case to be made for cans, and so, it gives us great pleasure to introduce you to Forest Garden and Eve Goes Badass… in cans. Not just any old can, but these lovely sleek cans which hold 355mL of cider. Because the other thing we’ve heard from our customers is that 500mL (our small bottles) is a bit of a commitment for some folks, who would prefer our cider in smaller serving sizes.
For both of those reasons – the environmental footprint, and the serving size – we think that the time is right for this new format. We have had to make some changes to accommodate a very different production flow.
We’re keenly interested to hear what you think. Let us know in the comments below.