FILE - Double Mountain Brewery owner and brewmaster Matt Swihart sits for a portrait in his office on March 3, 2020, in Hood River, Ore.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
When Matt Swihart started Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River, Oregon, in 2007, his vision was to sell beer in the most ecologically sustainable way possible: in reusable bottles, which would be returned, cleaned and refilled to be sold again.
The numbers, he says, help make his case.
“A single-use beer bottle, as well as a single-use aluminum can, involves a certain amount of carbon through its life cycle … a reusable beer bottle, like the one we use in Oregon, is about 69 times less than a single-use recycled beer bottle.”
Related: Oregon Launches First Statewide Refillable Bottle System In US
That number is based on the glass bottle being reused about 20-25 times, but even reusing it a single time, he claims, cuts the carbon nearly in half, because of how much carbon is used in the original manufacturing.
Reusable beverage containers are also not a particularly novel idea.
“In the ‘70s, it was the norm, ubiquitously, throughout the United States and still is across the world, where reusable beer bottles and soda bottles are used throughout many countries.”
Market forces shifted beverage manufacturers away from refillables and into unique containers that could be more effectively branded for consumers, and the infrastructure fell away.
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Swihart began small and is now engaged in building a regional infrastructure that any beer brewer in Oregon can choose to access, with the help of the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, which partnered with the company in 2018 to make standard refillable glass beer bottles.
FILE - A six-pack of Double Mountain beer as pictured in 2020, featuring a label letting customers know the bottles inside are refillable. The bottles themselves also have the word "refillable" stamped into the glass.
Cassandra Profita / OPB/EarthFix
One Oregon company that was inspired by Swihart’s efforts is Revino, which is based in Newberg and launched just last year. It’s working with a number of vintners to put their wine into Revino’s returnable, refillable bottles.
Willamette Valley Vineyards recently announced a rollout of over 1,500 cases of a Pinot Noir it makes in Revino’s bottles. Customers will get a 10-cent wine credit for every bottle they return to the winery.
In this undated photo provided by Revino, a Willamette Valley Vineyards Pino Noir is featured in the company's refillable bottles.
Courtesy Molly Bailey for Revino
Revino co-founder Adam Rack says only about a third of glass bottles are even recycled, so getting reusable bottles into the process is key. He also thinks Oregon’s landmark Bottle Bill should be updated to include wine bottles.
“California has already added wine bottles, Maine as well,” he said. “We used to be the leaders in the Bottle Bill, but now we’re kind of falling behind. So it’s about time to modernize.”
Related: The Refillable Beer Bottle Is Making A Comeback In Oregon
Both Rack and Swihart say they believe reducing and reusing will play an increasingly important role in helping lower carbon emissions and transform a single-use mindset into one of true sustainability. That’s something they think everyone can drink to.
To listen to the entire conversation with Matt Swihart and Adam Rack on OPB’s “Think Out Loud,” click the play button below.
