Tempe's Four Peaks Brewing enters partnership to increase recycling

Four Peaks Brewing announced its partnership with CIRT Inc., becoming the first beverage company in the country to include CIRT’s digital, location-based recycling tool on all of its packaging.

Born in Tempe, Four Peaks launched refreshed packaging and branding this month on its entire portfolio, offering a modern look with sustainability messaging intended to increase consumer recycling behavior, a media release explained.

Founded in 1996, Four Peaks has become known for its award-winning Kilt Lifter and Wow Wheat beers throughout the Southwest, joining Anheuser-Busch's collective of craft brewery partners in 2016.

“Four Peaks strives to make a positive impact one sip at a time. This partnership offers our consumers a way to easily determine exactly where and how to recycle our products, promoting and increasing recycling one can at a time,” Trevor Needle, Four Peaks Brewing marketing director, stated in the release.

In collaboration with CIRT, Four Peaks added the digital, location-based recycling tool to help recover their packaging, allowing consumers to quickly access recycling instructions for all of Four Peaks’s packaging, wherever they are.

The tool is accessible via QR code on exterior packaging, as well as the metal cans and glass bottles themselves.

With CIRT’s technology and database, Four Peaks has the potential to:

• Provide location-specific recycling information on their packaging to over 21 million people;
• Divert 3.5 million lbs. of material from landfills; and
• Offset over 5.1 million lbs. of CO2e emissions.

The CIRT platform was developed in part with backing from the 100+ Accelerator, a program funded by Anheuser-Busch InBev, Unilever, Coca-Cola and Colgate-Palmolive. The 100+ Accelerator was created to fuel the growth of startups developing critical sustainability solutions, the release noted.

Four Peaks Brewing is the first brewery and beverage brand to feature CIRT’s technology on its entire portfolio, but the second Anheuser-Busch craft brewery to partner with the organization, following a project between CIRT with Wicked Weed Brewing in 2021.