Promoting water reuse

A San Francisco-based water reuse specialist has partnered with a brewery on two new beers that promote the use of recycled water. 

Epic Cleantec and Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company‘s Shower Power IPA and Laundry Club Kölsch are made with purified recycled water from – you guessed it – shower and laundry water.

While some might find the concept of drinking ‘used’ water distasteful (on initial thought it didn’t make me crave a beer), the message the two companies are spreading with this launch is admirable. In fact, millions of us across the globe do in fact drink potable recycled wastewater every day, so these products aren’t necessarily anything new – just a brilliant marketing idea that inspires a sustainable mindset.

The reused water is cleaned with modern and state-of-the-art technology by Epic Cleantec.

“As water and infrastructure challenges grow worldwide, buildings continue to discard perfectly good water with tremendous potential for reuse. By creating Shower Hour IPA and Laundry Club Kölsch, we’re giving people a fun and approachable way to see recycled water in a new light,” said Aaron Tartakovsky, co-founder and CEO of Epic Cleantec. “If a single great beer can change minds, imagine the impact of these advanced water reuse technologies when deployed at scale.”

The amount of liquid that is wasted in production sites is eye-watering to say the least, if you’ll pardon the pun. Can manufacturing sites worldwide are consuming billions of litres of water per year, according to CIE, specialist in wastewater treatment for metal packagers. However, many are already utilising closed loop water cleaning and recycling systems in their operations, such as the zero liquid discharge (ZLD) solution, which transforms wastewater into a valuable resource. Because why would you stop at promoting circular packaging when you can close the loop on the resources used to produce that packaging?

However, different regions across the globe will have varying and evolving regulations, so manufacturers with multiple global locations must be vigilant and ensure communication, equipment and safety are held to a high standard at all times. With this, as well as the advanced technology of the water re-use equipment, can come additional costs, so this type of closed loop operation isn’t easy to do, but it is worthwhile. And educating consumers about this is all the more important, so kudos to Epic Cleantec and Devil’s Canyon Brewing Company.

Alex Rivers (she/her), CanTech International editor
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