Canberra's Capital Brewing Co has started using wine kegs to strengthen its environmentally friendly credentials, cutting down on about 400 bottles and nearly 70 cardboard boxes a week.
The partnership with South Australia-based R!ot Wine Co, which also produces wine in cans, comes ahead of National Recycling Week. The initiative officially runs from next Monday, October 11 until Friday, October 15.
Capital's community engagement manager, Dan Watters, said the kegs would add to the brewery's existing host of green measures, which include giving beer by product to farmers for feed and compost, and water and energy saving techniques.
"[The wine kegs were] a no-brainer," Mr Watters said.
"We're aiming to cut out waste and we have done that almost entirely.
"I think we all have an obligation, especially businesses, to lead by example."
The brewery would still offer one bottled wine along with the three keg varieties.
Mr Watters is a speaker in the 'Sustainable Futures' talk on Tuesday as part of ACT government's recycling week program. Capital staff would also be doing tours of the brewery with a focus on its environmentally conscious production processes.
On Thursday, the government's Actsmart team would attempt to set the Guinness world record for the most mobile phones collected for recycling in 24 hours.
Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate sustainable programs manager, Ros Malouf, said the government arm hoped to raise recycling's profile with the spectacle.
It would be the third year Actsmart has done a 'mobile roundup'.
"Last year we got a total of 67 kilograms of phones - it was approximately 334 handsets," Ms Malouf said.
"We got 46 kilograms from businesses and 20 kilograms from schools.
"We collect the phones, the actual handsets, chargers, and all the accessories that go with phones as well."
Ms Malouf described the event as like "a history of mobile phones", as Canberrans tracked down their worn out devices in the back of junk drawers before the day.
The battery component of mobile phones could be made into new batteries, while plastics could be used for new mobile phone casings, and aluminium and glass could also be recycled.
"The battery is quite carcinogenic in landfill; that causes probably the biggest problem once it breaks down," Ms Malouf said.
"That's why we want to definitely get it out of there.
"Once a phone is in landfill, we can't recover it ... [so] getting it into a recycling program is a great opportunity to actually turn it into something else."
The territory's recycling week program also included several DESIGN Canberra festival events, as it partnered with the government.
The last recycling week activity was scheduled for next Sunday, November 17.
