Set the Bar While You Sidle Up to It

Can you imagine the impact of a mandatory recycling campaign based on those 99 barrels of beer on the wall? How about a voluntary one?

Americans pour their way through 210,000,000 million barrels of liquid gold every year, and there is no shortage in sight. Forget about Middle Eastern distributors -- we've got direct pipelines all across our 50 United States. It's cheap and accessible, and down right American.

It's beer.

According to Beer Marketers Insights, (name a guy who doesn't want to quit this minute and go work for them?) the United States beer market sops up $94 million dollars a year in beer sales. That's enough to keep those chemical-belching aluminum factories manufacturing around the clock to keep up with public demand.

Here are a couple of great stats for all you sports fans keeping score. Every Sunday during the National Football League season, the average stadium taps 1,300 kegs and over 45,000 bottles of beer. Multiply that by 16 (32 teams play each other weekly) and we're talking 20,800 kegs, 72,000 plus bottles a week.

What if every guy watching football with his friends on Sunday decided to bypass the garbage can and instead toss those empties into a recycling bin. Oh, and while you're cracking open a cold one, you're helping to save the planet. Imagine the impact of one house, on one street, in one neighborhood, in one city, in one state, in every stadium, all across the country. It's time for beer manufacturers, distributors, and thirst quenchers alike to set the bar while they sidle up it.

It's enough to make me want to down a tall frosty one.