The Abita Brewing Company Bottle Reuse Campaign

Collect glass bottles at point-of-sale for reuse.

Dear Abita:

We write you as enormous fans of your wonderful products. As New Orleanians (and friends elsewhere), our lives seem to rotate around your seasonal brews, punctuated with your Ambers, Jockamos, Restorations, Turbo Dogs, and Root Beers. From bars to supermarkets, restaurants and parties, we are loyal and avid enthusiasts of your work.

However, we write you with one problem—and a proposal for solving that problem. Especially in Southern Louisiana, where recycling is spotty and doesn’t collect glass, we are saddened every time we have to throw an Abita bottle in the trash. It seems to us that there is a profoundly strong solution to move in the direction both of environmental sustainability, efficient resource use, and a business model committed to the health of its own community.

As your clientele, we ask, following a common model of resource and economic sustainability in practice around the world, that the Abita Brewing Company adopt the policy of collecting all used glass bottles at the point-of-sale for cleaning and reuse.

We trust that this is not the first time such an idea has been considered by your organization, and we also understand that there are real barriers to entry of such a policy, but we feel that in this time of climate change, resource exhaustion, and evolution of business models (driven by a skyrocketing demand for sustainable products and practices), that the time is ripe for an amazing local company like yourselves to take the lead on such a policy in this country.

We are not experts on means of production, distribution, economics, or systems, but we are passionate and thoughtful consumers that represent the sentiments of many of your clients and fans. We’ve seen this incredibly simple but powerful practice in action around the globe and it seems to make very clear sense in our current world, and especially in your local market.

We write to you with this request and offer our help designing and implementing a way to make this work. We greatly appreciate the joy and flavor you bring to our lives and our region, and we look forward to seeing the Abita Brewing Company become a nationally recognized leader in sustainable business practices.

Sincerely,

Avra Heller
avra.heller@gmail.com

Stefin Pasternak
stefinp@gmail.com

Christine Breland
cbreland@gmail.com

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