Why We Don’t Take Beer Kegs

Without going into a long drawn out list of what our yard takes and doesn’t take, we thought we would explain why we don’t take one specific product, beer kegs. Why? Well, at some point, common sense has to take over. Cars without titles, explosives or machinery with serial numbers and no owner documentation are these type of common sense items we’re talking about. Anything that smells stolen or dangerous has to be omitted for practical, safety and CYA reasons.

So we’ll go straight to the point, on our website it list three items we don’t accept…beer kegs, plastic or paper and cardboard. Odd list, they really don’t go together at all, but paper, plastic and cardboard do get recycled and some folks often mistake all recycling vendors as the same, as if the process across the board is no different. That’s fine, we live and learn.

Beer kegs on the other hand is a recyclable product we could accept, but do not. Why? The answers not totally simple as I’ll explain, but after a bit of reading and research it should make sense. The number one reason is that most people, and I mean almost all people, don’t own, or would never need to own a beer keg. Fine, that’s acceptable, but that doesn’t explain why it can’t be sold for scrap. It actually does. Those beer kegs are generally sold by individuals who have forgotten or just plain refused to return the keg to the retailer that they rented it from. The beer is purchased, but the keg is merely the distribution method used to distribute the beer out to the masses. Those kegs cost about $150 to create and the retailer or the beer distributor actually owns the keg. Even if you paid a deposit, lost it due to negligence, the ownership still stands with someone other than yourself. Just like a car, you couldn’t sell or scrap a rental car after you were finished renting it.

Beer keg theft is rampant, the average keg will get $15-$30 when recycled. Many restaurants, bars and taverns and started demanding that local scrap yards check ID when accepting kegs for cash. With that, Amcep has decided to not accept kegs overall as part of our policy in discouraging keg theft in the first place.

Ultimately it’s up you in your decision making process, either way you’ll pay more in the long run by not returning the keg back, and trying to recoup $15 of your deposit back. It’s far better goodwill, to return it back to the retailer you rented it from.