If you're an aficionado of Telluride Brewing, you might have noticed the big black print on the side of their cans reading “Peel Off Label Before Recycling.” The Brewery’s art director and a founding partner John Lehman says they’re committed to that commandment:

“It’s locked in there on the template of every label that we put out there, so it’s going out there on every single one. And when I see people drinking one I try to bring it up and ask if that’s what’s happening,” says Lehman.

But why peel your beers? It comes back, of course, to recycling. Here’s Lehman:

“Aluminum is the most recycled beverage container on the planet. I’s about 70% of all aluminum has been recycled already,” Lehman explains. “So it's definitely the most sustainable packaging. It also keeps beer the freshest because it locks the seal a little tighter and no light is getting in, so it's always been the preferred method for getting beer out there for us.”

For a long time, Telluride Brewing ordered its aluminum cans with ink labels printed directly on them. Then, amidst the supply chain disruptions of the pandemic, all three major can manufacturers in the US increased the minimum order for a custom print job by five-fold to over a million cans. Chuck Skypeck, Technical Projects Director with the Brewer’s Association, the national trade group for craft beverage makers, says this caused issues in the industry

“For smaller craft breweries and also companies that are making kombucha or cider, that million cans is both out of reach financially and they don’t have the ability to store and the ability to sell that million cans,” Skypeck says.

The problem of how to label those smaller batches of beer, takes us to the packaging room at TBC, where a Rube Goldberg-esque device is taking in cans labeled ‘Kolsch,’ slapping a sticker on them, and spitting out a limited edition lime green pilsner.

TBC orders printed aluminum cans for its three core beers by the millions — including the ever-popular Mountain Kolsch. Then, when it produces a more limited edition beer, or a smaller batch, it cans them in a Kolsch can and sticks on a plastic sticker re-labeling the beer. The solution has been adopted almost universally by small brewers across the country.

But, wrapping aluminum in plastic affects the material’s long term recyclability, says Lehman.

“When you add a different substrate it takes away from the purity of the recycling process. So we wanted to get the message out there to peel off the label before it goes into the recycling phase,” Lehman explains.

Skypeck adds he’s seen the issues firsthand. He recalls a visit to a major recycling sorter in Denver.

“And we poured a bunch of cans with those plastic shrink sleeves onto the belt — you know, single-stream [recycling] which is not a great recycling solution, but it's what we have currently, has the issue of sorting those materials. We poured those plastic-sleeved cans onto the conveyor belt right before the piece of equipment which sorts out the PVC from everything else. Virtually every one of those cans went into the PVC stream,” says Skypeck.

PVC is the designation of vinyl plastic. The solution at the Denver facility involved hiring hand sorters to catch the misidentified cans, but Skypeck says that’s just the beginning of the complications.

“Then let's just say it's sorted correctly and they’re on their way to the smelter. Well, a couple things can happen. Aluminum is more expensive than plastic and some smelters — if there's a significant amount of plastic in the bale that the recyclers are trying to sell, they’ll reject it. They don't want to pay aluminum prices for the amount of plastic that’s in that bale. And at that point it probably ends up in the landfill,” says Skypeck.

Even when purchased by a smelter, the plastic contamination can lead to clogs, damage, and any number of complications further down in the recycling process. Hence the label: “Peel Your Beers.”

But, back in the packaging room of TBC, it’s an open question of whether consumers are sticking to the rule of peeling off the plastic. Running the can labeler, TBC employee Hannah Kiermeyr says, it depends.

“I personally do it; I feel like if people are from around here and drink this beer they know, but I’ve had some guests over at my house and they don't peel the labels, so I always end up doing it,” Kiermeyr says.

Skypeck says the effort is certainly admirable, and some other Colorado breweries have been following suit. But depending on consumers can often be futile.

“I think Telluride Brewing is doing the right thing by educating consumers, but most of the recycling experts I talk with will say a consumer based solution is usually one of the least effective solutions. I think that may be a little different with a small craft brewery that has a closer relationship with its customers, but I think a technological solution is what is going to solve the issues,” says Skypeck

Technology is still attempting to catch up with the abrupt, pandemic era, changes in the can industry, but there are efforts exploring paper labels and small scale aluminum inking machines.

Until then, it’s time to take things into your own hands.