The glass packaging industry relies on businesses in the hospitality industry to provide high-quality recovered glass containers for use in the manufacture of new glass bottles and jars. Bars, restaurants, and hotels offer a readily available and abundant source for recycled glass.
To expand sources for high-quality cullet, glass manufacturers are encouraging glass bottle recycling in commercial settings, including bars, restaurants, wineries, hotels, and other on-premise locations. About 18% of beverages are consumed on premise, and glass makes up to about 80% of that container mix. So these retail businesses are a good source of clean, high-quality recycled glass.
Recycling in the Restaurant Industry
In 2011, the National Restaurant Association conducted a survey in which 65% of restaurateurs have recycling programs, and another 19% of full service operators plan to start one in the next year. While restaurateurs are recycling a variety of materials, 68% of full service restaurants and 52% of quick service recycle glass bottles.
According to the in-depth survey, 10 bar, restaurant, and hotel glass container recycling programs in eight states found that partnerships are key and identified best practices that resulted from initiating trail-blazing programs. Data collected on containers along with processes, economic details, and logistics revealed the average amount of glass collected through a bar, restaurant, hotel recycling program is about 150 tons/month, with an average of 100 participating businesses in each surveyed program.
Additionally, the 2011 report, Survey of U.S. Glass Container Recycling Programs for Bars, Restaurants, and Hotels, concluded that 65% of consumers have a preference for restaurants that recycles, with 85% expressing they like being able to sort recyclables in fast food or fast casual restaurants that provide separated disposal bins.
Polling data from the National Restaurant Association’s 2022 State of the Restaurant Industry Report found that restaurant goers want packaging for off-premises orders to be made with more sustainable materials. In fact, among the top 10 food and menu trends in 2022, sustainable, reusable, and recyclable packaging ranked first, while concerns over packaging quality and temperature followed in second and third place on the list.
That 2022 survey further revealed that 70% of millennials and 72% of Gen Z adults expressed their willingness to pay extra for takeout orders to cover the cost of upgraded packaging.
Sustainable Tourism & Waste Reduction
In 2021, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) published a report that highlighted sustainability in travel and tourism as part of its GSTC Industry Criteria, with the area on the hospitality industry focusing on hotels and tour operators. Measures they listed in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions included "provision of a collection and recycling system, with at least four streams (i.e. organic, paper, metal, glass and plastic)" and "adequate bins for separated waste disposal.
U.S Corporate and Local Hospitality
Atlanta, Georgia
The Atlanta Hyatt Regency is just one of many restaurants and hotels that are working to be compliant with the challenge. Restaurants in Atlanta, including Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and Fifth Group Restaurants are also stepping up to recycle glass containers as well as other green initiatives.
Las Vegas, Nevada
n 2011, the MGM Resorts International hotel group broke the 10 million pounds of glass recycled mark at 10 of their Las Vegas hotel properties. They expect to exceed that for in 2012.
Indianapolis, Indiana
Broad Ripple Village, a commercial district in a north Indianapolis neighborhood, has expanded glass bottle recycling to 14 ten bars and restaurants and bringing in about 20 ton/month in 20008.
Hamilton County, Ohio
Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, Ohio, offered assistance to bars and restaurants that want to recycle glass bottles and jars. Today, 34 bars and restaurants are participating, with a goal to reach 50 by end of summer 2011.
St. Louis, Missouri
“There are two primary items that restaurants and food services have that don’t typically get recycled—glass bottles and food waste,” says Harry Cohen, owner of Blue Skies Recycling in St. Louis, MO and Louisville, KY. So Cohen signed up the St. Louis Cardinals and over 30 local restaurants to help keep these valuable commodities from going to the landfill.
North Carolina
In 2008, North Carolina passed a law requiring all Alcohol Beverage Permit holders to recycle their beverage containers. In 2011, over 86,000 tons of glass containers were collected for recycling (up from about 45,000 tons/year before the law).
Find out how the Glass Packaging Institute is working with bars and restaurants to divert glass away from landfills and into the recycling stream by visiting our Don'T Trash Glass page. Bars and restaurants in Illinois, Colorado and Kentucky can join the program by signing up here.