Expired Beer Disposal – Do it Right, or you Might Get Fined

Does beer require hazardous waste removal? (You’d be surprised.) Check out the following Q&As.

1. Does beer require hazardous waste disposal?

2. Do household amounts of stale beer require hazardous waste disposal?

3. Do you have to toss expired beer?

4. Where can you get advice about unwanted-beer disposal?

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1. Does beer require hazardous waste disposal?

Yes—if there’s enough of it. Beer is brewed with yeast and creates alcohol; therefore, it is an example of hazardous waste. Consider:

• Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). Materials disposed of into water bodies or systems will decompose. Decomposition requires oxygen. Different substances consume more or less oxygen than others. The metric for this is called Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). Too much high-BOD waste can create an oxygen shortage that kills aquatic life: from microorganisms to fish. (The EPA and department of ecology will not be amused.)

• Total suspended solids (TSS). Remediation of excessive suspended solids (per Clean Water Act standards) requires treatment or removal—probably both—and is expensive. (In Texas, two small breweries were each fined $5000 for their TSS peccadillos.)

• pH levels. Adding beer (and its attendant yeast) into a water body or system will affect pH levels, making it’s acid or base levels inhospitable to important biota. (You so don’t want to do that).

2. Do household amounts of stale beer require hazardous waste disposal?

It depends on the size of the “house.” Suppose it’s a stadium, yes. No, if it’s a gingerbread cottage in suburbia with a cute garden and white picket fence. What is “small” is relative. If you own or manage a bar, restaurant, or sporting venue with large amounts of stale beer that require disposal, you have a hazardous waste removal task ahead of you.

Generally, how much beer you can pour down your drain with legal impunity depends on your facility’s overall septic system. But if your drains go directly to the municipal sewer, you should carefully follow all proper wastewater disposal requirements. I.e., notifying and receiving permission from your local government or wastewater treatment agency—and making sure you get expert advice.  

3. Do you have to toss expired beer?

Is it bad to drink expired beer? We would not recommend it; instead, you can recycle the expired beer. It can be distilled, and the alcohol can be used to make other products (e.g. hand sanitizer). But getting your beer to an industrial distillery presents a hazardous waste transport challenge, albeit one that might be easier to solve than disposal—but you should get expert advice about EPA and DOT transport requirements.

Meanwhile, the Brewers Association offers these tips for emptying kegs when disposing of beer: 

• For safety and economic considerations, it’s better to push beer from kegs with compressed air rather than CO2. 
• If using CO2, do so in a well-ventilated area, monitoring to keep concentrations at safe levels (under 1,000 ppm). 
• Use appropriate personal protective equipment (especially eye and hand protection).
• Larger drain hoses (1/2? ID) will decrease drain times. 
• Adequately secure hose drain ends to prevent flailing.
• Do not exceed a keg’s working pressure while emptying it.

4. Where can you get advice about unwanted-beer disposal?

Remember, per the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), you’re responsible for any hazardous waste you “generate” from “from cradle to grave.” This includes its generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal—even if it’s “only beer.”

So it bears repeating: Expert advice is crucial—and the very best kind is available here.

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