Ardagh Glass Packaging partners with Kansas City Bier Co.

Ardagh Glass Packaging North America, Indianapolis, a business of Ardagh Group, has partnered with Kansas City Bier Co., Kansas City, Missouri, to supply the brewery’s glass beer bottles.  

The partnership will connect the company with Ardagh’s Pevely, Missouri, glass manufacturing facility. This will help keep the brewery’s promise to source local products and incorporate sustainable practices into its operations.   

Kansas City Bier exclusively packages its beer in 100 percent recyclable glass bottles, all manufactured in the U.S. by Ardagh.   

“It is important to us to reduce our impact on the environment where possible,” says Katie Camlin, digital and social media coordinator at Kansas City Bier. “Glass bottles are both reusable and recyclable and working with Ardagh, a domestic manufacturer, reduces shipping distances greatly.”  

In 2021, Kansas City Bier filled more than 2.6 million glass beer bottles. Equally important as packaging, the brewery’s beer in sustainable glass bottles is the ability to repeatedly recycle those bottles. 

Through the brewery’s partnership with Ripple Glass, a glass recycling provider for the Kansas City area and mid-America region, the glass bottles are recycled into new bottles.   

Last year, Kansas City Bier diverted 25,515 pounds, or 12.75 tons, from the landfill by recycling glass bottles in the famous purple bins provided by Ripple Glass.   

Recycling plays a key role in Ardagh’s and Kansas City Bier’s sustainability initiatives. Recycling glass containers keeps glass out of the landfills while giving it the new life it deserves, but it has significant environmental benefits by saving raw materials, lessening the demand for energy and cutting CO₂ emissions. Glass recycling is a great way to close the loop, protect the environment and support area businesses.   

“Ardagh Glass Packaging enjoys partnering with craft brewers like Kansas City Bier that have a passion for glass bottles and sustainable practices,” says Clint Gawart, vice president of Beer & Beverage for Ardagh North America. “We’ve supplied the brewery for the past four years and are elated they continue to package all of their products in 12-ounce glass bottles designed and manufactured by Ardagh.”  

Throughout 2022, Ardagh Glass Packaging says it will celebrate the United Nations International Year of Glass (IYOG), commemorating the essential role of glass packaging in a sustainable society.  

Ardagh says it is focused on celebrating customers like Kansas City Bier and its use of sustainable glass beer bottles, to share the important role of glass packaging.