The Best Ways to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Your Beverage Containers

New Belgium Brewery is most famous for Fat Tire beer, a frothy homage to the mountain bike. The company also encourages employees and customers to bike to the brewery. The company will soon be powered by renewable energy. The company is all about the environment.

That's why I thought the brewery staff would be happy when I brought back some bomber bottles for refills. Then I found out it is virtually impossible for breweries and other beverage manufacturers to refill bottles. Used bottles cannot be adequately sterilized for U.S. standards at most breweries, even though in Europe it is common to see beer and wine bottles with multiple overlapping labels.

So a brewery or winery can't help you reuse your bottles, but here are some other ways to reduce, reuse and recycle your drink packaging.

Curb the carton

Waxed-paper milk and juice cartons are difficult to produce and recycle. The production process involves complex layering of paper, plastic and metal, and is quite energy-intensive. Not many recycling programs accept empty cartons.

If you must use the cartons and can't recycle them, reduce usage by buying in bulk - half-gallons instead of pints, for example. Also try to reuse them for as long as possible. Waxed-paper cartons are great for crafts, and make good planters for starting new plants (start some new fruits, make your own juice and avoid buying more cartons).

Plastic is preferred

Plastic milk and juice jugs are better than waxed paper. Plastic is easier to make and recycle into many other products. Green Toys makes children's toys out of recycled milk jugs. According to the company, recycling a pound of plastic milk jugs rather than using virgin plastic can save enough energy to power a laptop computer for a month.

Sam's Club, Costco and other retailers have moved to a more sustainable milk jug design. The more square containers are easier to stack and ship. Easier stacking means more milk jugs per truck, which means less gas used per milk jug.

Also look for refillable plastic milk jugs. They have slowly spread from natural grocers in Wisconsin and other dairy states. They are now available at some major chains nationwide. Unlike New Belgium, the dairies are able to sterilize and refill the containers. They typically reuse the containers 20 to 30 times before disposal, they said.

Glass can be good

As noted above, smaller breweries and other companies are unable to refill glass bottles - with one notable exception. Check into growler bottles at your local micro brewery. Growlers - allegedly named for the growling sound of carbon dioxide escaping from the lid of a pail - are half-gallon bottles of beer to go. They are typically cheaper per pint than bottles of beer, and you can usually get significant discounts by bringing back bottles and refilling them. You'll also help the environment by saving glass.

Refillable milk bottles have been around for a long time. Though it may seem old-fashioned and quaint, milk is still available in many areas in refillable glass bottles. It is often from local dairies, so it doesn't need to travel as far. The bottles can be sterilized and reused many more times than refillable plastic bottles because the glass does not degrade or melt.

On the other hand, glass recycling is expensive and complicated, so single-use glass is not ideal.

Cans can do it

Single-use aluminum is easier to recycle, and therefore easier on the Earth, than single-use glass. However, cans are typically small, preventing bulk purchasing, which is more efficient.

Alternative packaging

Finally, plastic bags are popular drink containers in many countries, but have not caught on in the United States. In Canada, families buy bags of milk, snip off the corners and put them in a reusable pitcher. Across the developing world, soda and juice is widely sold in plastic bags. These bags use just a fraction of the plastic used in thicker plastic jugs.