When bars and restaurants across Ireland closed to stop the spread of the pandemic, thousands of kegs of Guinness beer went unconsumed. Fortunately, the company began a reclamation initiative to put the beer to a helpful and unusual use: tree fertilizer.
Guinness is apparently great for boosting Christmas and willow tree growth. So after collecting and decanting hundreds of thousands of kegs of stout, beer, and ale, the company dispersed it to Christmas tree and willow plantations around the country.
In addition to reducing waste by repurposing the beer as fertilizer, the company turned the rest of their unused product into producing biogas. When processed through anaerobic digesters, the company can use leftover beer to create greener energy for long term use in their factories.
A couple of months ago we shared a story about a brewery giving their beer away for a good cause. This is another innovative solution to come out of an unfortunate situation. Although Guinness certainly would have preferred to have customers drinking their beer, using it as fertilizer and biogas is a great way to keep it from going to waste all together.
