Headless Mumby Brewing Company is hosting a little fun for a good cause. Whoever brings in the most hard plastics for recycling during the month of July will win a $50 gift card on August 1. If that sounds like a little friendly competition that also protects the environment, you’re right. Recycling tops also allows customers to get a dollar off their purchase.
“Let’s have fun while keeping plastic out of the landfill,” said Alex Maffeo, co-founder and CEO of Headless Mumby. “We’re all in this together. It doesn’t matter if you bring 1 or 100 highs, you’re all helping us move in the right direction.
Maffeo recycles the tops through manufacturer PakTech, which reuses the 100% recyclable HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) material into planters, composite wood and more. “We’ve been running the return program for about a year, and we’re getting a lot back,” says Maffeo. “Some people bring them one at a time. We had a few people who brought full bags.
Headless Mumby and its customers fill the PakTech recycling bin with lids approximately every two months. July counts are kept for the highest number of can holder covers brought into the dining room. Updates can be found on Headless Mumby Facebook and Instagram. Maffeo says he wants to see how many plastic tops he can get and can’t wait to hand out the $50 gift card to the winner.
“There’s a lot of plastic floating around out there, and it’s only getting worse,” Maffeo says. “We want to do our part to reduce this however we can.” One way he does this is to source a six-pack holder from a local company in Kent, which is not plastic at all. “We’ve gone fully compostable so you can throw it in the compost or paper recycling, and it will decompose. They are made from by-products of wheat and barley. They’ve also proven to be durable and won’t fall apart when you carry your sixer to the crate or from the fridge.
Headless Mumby Brewing Reduces Footprint
Many people are familiar with the thin, clear plastic bands that hold cans together. Harmful to the environment, many have been replaced with hard plastic tops. Even these were beaten by the new compostable version.
Reducing its footprint, recycling, reusing and reusing are on people’s minds. Headless Mumby indeed aims to be part of the solution as well. In the brewing process, water barrels are reused up to three times throughout the cooling cycle that is part of brewing. Not only does the tap room recycle its plastics, but the brewery’s practices include making maximum use of yeast before throwing it away as well as composting their grains and hops. Local farmers reap the benefits of spent hops to use as compost, and they can use the grains in livestock feed.
Recycling plastic can holders is just one thing on the list, and it’s one that customers can hop on board and have fun with. Choosing compostable six-pack media is actually an additional cost, but Maffeo considers it acceptable and worthy. “Not everyone can solve every problem,” he says, “but we can at least do what we can to be part of the solution.”
See what’s new from Headless Mumby Brewing at Olympia
Customers will notice new developments when they stop to recycle and race for the gift card. Eric’s Awesome Altbier is a new lager at the bar. Eric Wilcox, the first brewery intern in South Puget Sound Community College’s Craft Brewing and Distilling program, created the Altbier as the culmination of his internship at the brewery. Maffeo describes Wilcox’s cold, fermented amber lager as having honey notes that balance the traditional, noble hops and that it adheres to their style of all-lager brewing. Dortmunder, one of the bar’s favorite summer lagers, is another one to look forward to. Its balance of soft body and firm hop profile makes it a pleasant choice in hot weather.
“Every Friday, we offer a rotating single cask of our regular lagers to which a special ingredient has been added,” says Maffeo. “These are each unique, and we fill and seal them weeks in advance, so they are perfectly packaged. We have no way of knowing how they taste until they are operated at 4pm on Friday afternoons We also have food vendors set up in the parking lot on Fridays, sometimes also on Saturdays, to accompany our outdoor seating.
Board games and cards are back, and the bar has expanded its comfortable seating as well. “We love families coming to spend time together at our bar and have several snack options and non-alcoholic offerings. This includes soft pretzels, goldfish and chips. We currently have juice boxes, sparkling water, and NA Ginger Beer as well. In the very near future, also look for our new Draft Mini Mumby Craft Soda.
For more information, visit the Headless Mumby website or their Facebook and Instagram pages. Take a look at your recycling collection. Gather your hard plastic can holders and head to the dining room at 232 Division Street NW, Olympia. You might end up with the $50 gift card.
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