The Bulleit Distilling Co. Glass Recycling Center is located at the front entrance of the Visitor’s Center in Shelbyville, KY. Participants can also enter to win tickets to Bourbon & Beyond 2024.
As we wrap up Earth Month 2024, more and more distillery sustainability efforts are being announced and highlighted across the spirits industry. Today’s news from Diageo addresses one of the issues we raised in our recent podcast with Brown-Forman surrounding consumer awareness of recycling programs and brand engagement to encourage glass recycling. It’s a welcome sight and one we hope continues beyond April and the annual “Earth Month” campaigns.
Details on the New Glass Recycling Center:
Building on the partnership’s success in its first year, Bulleit brings Diageo’s bar and restaurant glass recycling initiative to its Shelbyville Kentucky campus.
Today, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey announced the launch of the first phase of the successful ‘Don’t Trash Glass’ program in Kentucky. ‘Don’t Trash Glass’ is a bar, restaurant and local business glass recycling program in collaboration with the Glass Packaging Institute and GlassKing Recovery & Recycling to collect used glass bottles and improve regional recycling rates.
As a brand that relies on natural resources to produce quality whiskeys, Bulleit is dedicated to becoming ‘sustainable by design.’ This means pioneering sustainable practices in every facet of the business to help restore and replenish the resources that go into its whiskeys. The phase one expansion of ‘Don’t Trash Glass’ into Bulleit’s home state of Kentucky will further this commitment, especially as Kentucky has one of the lowest glass recycling rates in the nation, 15%, well below the overall 31.3% national average recycling rate in America.
At Bulleit, we’re always looking for innovative ways to improve both our production, and whiskey offerings. We owe the success of the first iteration of ‘Don’t Trash Glass’ in Chicago to the amazing bars, restaurants and local business communities who share our common goal of reducing our environmental impact, and we’re thrilled to bring this program home to Kentuckyto make a difference in our local communities.
Jenika Newsum, Brand Manager at Bulleit
The ‘Don’t Trash Glass’ program collected 2.2 million pounds of glass in Illinois, and is set to continue to grow in popularity as it expands through Kentucky. Local businesses interested in enrolling in ‘Don’t Trash Glass’ can find more information on the Glass Packaging Institute’s website.
‘Don’t Trash Glass’ is an exciting partnership that has shown a promising first year of impact to improve regional glass collection and advance circularity across our customer value chain in the Chicagoland area. We believe that working collectively with local businesses and the hospitality sector will generate lasting solutions that support communities and advance our sustainable by design goals. It is why we are extremely excited about expanding our partnership and taking the program to Kentucky.
Jayant Kairam, VP, Society for Diageo North America
To kick off this program, and in celebration of Earth Month, visitors are encouraged to bring their glass bottles to the Bulleit Distilling Co. Glass Recycling Center from Wednesdays to Saturdays from 10:00am to 5:00pm, and on Sundays from 11:30am to 5:00pm. The Glass Recycling Center is located at the front entrance of the Visitor’s Center. Participants can take a photo of themselves recycling their glass bottles and post it to their public Instagram accounts to be entered to win two general admission tickets to the Bourbon & Beyond Festival on September 21-22, 2024 in Louisville. The social media program will run from April 22 to June 30, 2024. You must follow and tag @Bulleit and use the hashtag #BulleitxDontTrashGlassGiveaway to enter.
Rules for #BulleitxDontTrashGlassGiveaway:
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Must be a U.S. resident, 21+ to enter. DO NOT SHARE PHOTO WITH PERSONS WITH ANYONE UNDER LEGAL DRINKING AGE. Winner selected at random. Winner’s guest must be 21+. Alcohol not part of prize. Subject to Official Rules available @bulleit via link in bio. Sponsor: Diageo Americas, Inc., New York, NY.
About ‘Don’t Trash Glass’
Don’t Trash Glass™ is a glass bottle and container recycling program for bars, restaurants and local businesses collected separately from waste and other recyclables. Founded by Glass King Recycling and Recovery in 2018 in Phoenix, Arizona, the program has grown thanks to partners with the Glass Packaging Institute, Glass Recycling Foundation, Diageo along with other companies that are part of the glass recycling value chain. Learn more at gpi.org/dont-trash-glass-program.
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