Can You Recycle Beer Bottles With Lime Wedges Inside? (VIDEO)

Are you concerned about harming the recycling process by leaving your lime wedges in your empty beer bottles? Umbra over at Grist recently addressed this issue head-on in a fun and informative video. She offers a few helpful pointers for extracting the lime -- including fishing it out with a chopstick or twisting it just so before adding it to your beer so that it pops right out when the bottle is inverted -- post-drinking enjoyment, of course.

Of course, the real question -- is it necessary?

Check it out:

Comments

[danny12]

i like to now the add about 19 YEAR HOUSEWIFE IN NEW YOR TRADING AUTOMATIC FOREX MAKE 1 MILLION

[tegrat]

if the beer requires lime in the first place it's probably not worth drinking

[METAL]

Yes you can. Material denial should be done at the regional waypoint, NOT on the consumer end!

[Swerinjer4]

save water by rinsing your dishes with your own piss.

[loki]

I dont see why you couldnt recycle them. after all, if you melt the glass to remold new items from it, the lime will burn up and I wouldnt think it would be a problem. Now the only reason I can think of putting a lime in your beer to begin with is because the beer taste so horrible you have to do something to make it tolerable. Which to me would suggest changing the brand to something more palatable.

[LadyValinor]

In Canada, we can return beer bottles to the Liquor Store and get 10 cents per bottle. However, they do NOT accept beer bottles with lime wedges in them - as I found out the first time I tried to do it.

[Ontrackmac]

I want a beer...Thanks.

[MarvBitesBack]

I saw Buffy pull a lime out with her tongue and Chip was so impressed that he hung it from the rear view mirror in his SUV and everyone had a great laugh as we caravaned out to the Hamptons to have a way serious discussion about what we can do to help the poor people understand the sacrifices they'll have to face to keep the price of our limes low.

[JessWonderin]

I find working the lime out with my tongue in a bar gets me more dates . . . .

[mouselion]

Please.

[jsarets]

People should just stop drinking that crappy import in the clear bottles. You know the one. It's pretty much crap to begin with, and then the isohumulones from the hops react with riboflavin in the presence of light to create that lovely astringent flavor reminiscent of a skunk. Hence the citric acid from the lime to mask the bitterness.

I would recommend a much better low-gravity thirst-quencher, but it seems that the kind of people who drink this beer are generally more interested in what it says on the outside of the bottle than what's inside.

[Gasparilla]

I agree. It gives me an upset stomach, a trip to the bathroom, and a bad headache the next day.

[Decipherer]

Thanks for sharing! Did you miss anything?

[LiberalBuzz]

Why ruin the taste of beer with lime anyway?

[slarabee]

I agree. Beer taste just great without the fruit.

[mathme]

I don't salt or cook meat either. Why ruin a perfectly good roast with heat?

[pastorkius]

No need to get defensive over your "beer."

[frantaylor]

They melt the glass and anything like paper labels, or dried up beer, or lime wedges, is just incinerated.

[slarabee]

I am not sure that is true. I think they sterilize the bottles and refill them.

[Decipherer]

That's the way it was done 30+ years ago. Along with things like home milk delivery, it just ain't done that way anymore.

[mouselion]

That is "reuse" that you are referring to, recycling is taking the material and reforming it for a different (or same) use.

[frantaylor]

Every brand has a different bottle You really think they pay people to sort out the hundreds of different kinds of beer bottles?

[JessWonderin]

yea, a friend of mine had a job at a Mexican bottler wiping stubborn lipstick off bottles going to the filler . . . .

[gevan]

As far as I know, they do not recycle beer bottles whole. They break them into pieces whereupon any stray lime bits can be set aside.

[Prole-NY]

Most glass is crushed before recycling, so as you say it isn't a problem. Some bottles are, however, washed and reused. Reuse used to be much more common than it is nowadays, but it is usually more convenient to use thinner, lighter glass bottles that get crushed and melted than it is to use heavier, robust reusable bottles that need to be transported back to the right bottling plant (unless generic bottles are used) and then washed to an assured standard (nothing left in from the previous use). Obviously washing and refilling bottles is 'greener' than crushing, remelting and remanufacturing bottles,

[Decipherer]

I am not so sure it is obvious that not even counting transport whether washing, sterilizing, and refilling bottles is greener than crushing & remelting them to make new ones. Someone with some actual expertise in such matters might want to weigh-in on that one.