Dave Metcalfe, landlord of the Holly Bush Inn, Cefn Mawr, is going to see Dame Ellen MacArthur. The round-the-world yachtswoman now involved in the Circular Economy Foundation.
He will be traveling from Chirk railway station to the Isle of Wight by train to knock on her door. Dave has been writing to the Circular Economy Foundation for over two years without a response to his request for help with the Duty- Free Keg Beer campaign.
The Most Damaging
This campaign is about removing the duty paid on keg beer in pubs as the current situation in the UK is against the interests of your local. Unfortunately, 2023 has seen one of the largest closures of pubs across the UK since records began. The most damaging is the race to the bottom of the barrel by supermarkets and retail chains since COVID-19. The circular economy is a system where materials never become waste and nature is regenerated.
In a circular economy, products and materials are in circulation through processes like maintenance and reuse. Dave says pubs are a prime example of a circular economy. Beer is served in glasses that are washed and then served from kegs refilled by the brewery. This is a circular economy with little waste, unlike the supermarkets and retail chains that are now operating in a very unfair manner to UK pubs and the environment.
Unnecessary Burden
The wash temperature of a beer glass is approximately 60°C. The melting point of a beer can is 600°C and the melting point of glass is around 1,200°C. Obviously far more energy is required to melt beer cans and bottles. That is assuming they do go for recycling and are not just left lying around as litter. Constantly recycling beer cans (about 3 billion a year in the UK) and bottles (about 2 billion a year in the UK) just for a few drinks of beer is coming at a cost to our environment. Placing an unnecessary burden on the climate crisis. This can change for the better by encouraging more people back into the pubs and away from linear economies.
In this small selection of litter left behind on the steps of the Senedd during the COVID-19 lockdown, we see empty cans of Fosters, Carling, Budweiser, Magners and Peroni. Where did all this come from? We need people in high places to start listening to what we are saying. Help us save our pubs and our planet. If all our governments are ever going to do is pander to the shareholders (are you one because 99% of people reading this will not be?), we will get nowhere. This has to change.
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