11 Christmas Tipplers Eco-Tips

11 tips to drink responsibly for the planet this Christmas

With alcohol and non-alcohol drink options as boundless as the Australian horizon, there are many many options to drink well and not trash the planet as you party. Here's 11 favs:

1. Don't drink bottled, single-serve beer, brewed and packaged on the other side of the world. If you do, at least recycle. 
2. No single use plastic cups! Ever. If you go to an event and all they have is plastic cups, take your reusable beverage cup or find events with reusables for rent.
3. Be a locavore drinker: Find a local brewery and drink, on tap, on the site of your brew to save packaging and travel miles. You can use a site like Beer Crawl to find breweries in your local area. Or support the Australian wine industry and drink at the cellar door, choose wines from at least your state, if not Australia.
4. Drink beverages designed to be enjoyed at room temperature and do away with energy emissions to keep your drink cold. Red Wine, we salute you! 
5. No plastic straws. Ever. Plastic straws are a very bad idea. And killers of marine life.
6. If you BYO, take your empty cans or dead marines with you when you leave. 
7. Having a party? Ditch the disposable drink-ware. Rent glasses from your local bottlo or someone like bettercup. If you buy drinks in containers, the order of choice, best to worst is: Keg, Cans, Bottles, plastic.
8. Cleaning up after a big party? For effective recycling, make sure you separate your empty glass bottles into colours if you are taking to a glass recycling facility. Also don’t throw in bottle tops, corks etc. Glass recycling is finicky. Co-mingling any non-glass components in with your glass is problematic. (Like putting a red sock in with your whites.)
9. Having a cocktail party? Be mindful of the disposal of your organic waste and put your benchtop composter loud and proud on your bar.
10. Drink organic and carbon neutral wines, beers and spirits.
11. Drink Less. Yeah, not sure you want to hear that one but over-consumption applies to the fun stuff as well. Taper back a bit.

Many 'foreign beers' have never seen a far horizon

Beers like Peroni, Grolsch, Carlsberg, Heineken, Kronenbourg, Stella Artois, Becks are more than likely brewed in Australia despite the fact that they claim to be imported. It's the recipe that's imported.

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