Texas’s Oldest Craft Brewer Finds New Ways to Manage Aluminum Can Waste

Empty, damaged cans are fed by hand into the Weima E.200.Weima

Instead of paying for that service, Saint Arnold is reaping the benefits in the money it gets back for that crushed aluminum, providing a quick ROI on the E.200. “Just the amount of money we’re getting back for being able to recycle those cans pays it off in about a year and a half,” Dagger says. Factoring in the other benefits the brewer receives, the ROI is more like nine months, he estimates.

How the drainage press works

The Weima E.200 is a universal hopper with a sizable infeed capacity. The machine drains underfilled or out-of-spec product in one easy step. Rejected cans can be ejected directly into the machine’s hopper, which punctures them so the contents can be drained into a collection bin. All rejected cans are then easily compressed into 200 mm discs for recycling.

The Weima E.200 drains underfilled or out-of-spec product in one easy step. Rejected cans are then easily compressed into 200 mm discs for recycling.Weima

The machine can also be hand-fed in the case of loose cans that need crushing. In Saint Arnold’s case, they weren’t able to make use of the inline version of the drainage press because of line space, Dagger says. Instead, rejected cans are collected in a bucket to the side of the processing line, and that bucket is dumped into the drainage press.

Workers empty the bucket of cans daily typically, though sometimes twice a day, Dagger says, noting that the bucket is easier to dump if it’s not quite full. Dagger and his team have hooked up a pipe to existing fittings on the press to the drain to keep the flow of drained beer cleaner.

Despite space constraints in its brewing facility, Saint Arnold was still able to strategically place the free-standing Weima machine on-site. The damaged cans are manually loaded into the hopper, which swiftly compresses them, reducing volume and liberating much-needed space.

Instead of storing damaged cans in bulk in its warehouse before shipping to recycling, Saint Arnold is now able to take up much less space by storing tightly compressed discs of aluminum instead of partially filled cans. Not only does this maximize floor space between trips to the recycler, but it also increases the value of the aluminum due to its compressed form. The new system also significantly reduces the frequency of shipments to the recycler, streamlining logistics and minimizing transportation emissions.

Continued sustainability efforts

Crafting beer sold in distinctive, colorful cans has set Saint Arnold Brewing apart. As part of the craft brewing community, there’s also a strong tradition of environmental responsibility. Saint Arnold’s Recycle Rewards program, for example, incentivizes customers to return printed cardboard six-pack carriers for reuse—not only to reduce waste but also to save costs by repurposing the expensive carriers.

The move to the Weima E.200 has been huge for Saint Arnold’s recycling efforts, Dagger says. “We were dumping our used cans in the garbage can,” he concedes, pointing to the added cost savings they’re now seeing with fewer garbage pickups. Recalls and out-of-date product that was already palletized was going to the recycler, but that wasn’t true of the individual rejects. “For daily low-fills, the time it took for somebody to open each can, dump it, and make sure it’s dried out—we just couldn’t sustain that.”