March is the month of environmental awareness days. Food Action Week, World Recycling Day and Earth Hour are some of the many awareness days. And, believe it or not, alcohol consumption is actually worse for the environment than many people would think. So let's talk about how cutting down your alcohol consumption can actually be good for the environment.

Is Drinking Alcohol Bad For The Environment?

In short, yes, drinking alcohol is bad for the environment. Whilst there are lots of reasons for this, three of the main reasons are as follows:

1. Alcohol Emissions Are Very High

The emissions needed to create alcohol are very high. On top of this, alcohol production and farming degrade ecosystems and lead to biodiversity loss.

Alcohol production is very resource intensive. It requires a lot of ingredients, large amounts of water and energy in each stage of production. Particularly energy-intensive stages are distillation and creating packaging. On top of this, there is a lot of waste, some of which is toxic.

For example, the beer-making process wastes some 92% of brewing ingredients. This means for each can of beer, a huge number more resources are necessary. And when you make Tequila you end up creating a toxic pulp from the agave.

In terms of carbon emissions, a study from the University of Surrey as early as 2007 suggested that one pint of beer was equivalent to driving 1.5 miles in a car. Wine and spirits often have a slightly lower impact. However, it is still more considerable of an impact than many of us realise. Considering that when people drink they often have significantly more than one beer, this really adds up. 

2. Alcohol Containers Less Likely To Be Recycled

Another aspect of environmental degradation is the impact of unrecycled waste. In general, people are less likely to recycle alcohol containers. In fact, in the UK in 2017 around 50% of alcohol containers were not recycled. This means millions of tonnes of glass and tin ended up in general waste and not recycled.

3. Personal Behaviours

Being drunk is bad for the environment. Often the decisions we make when we are drunk are not carefully thought through. Even more often they are not mindful of the environment around us.

Things like driving to a bar, and then taking a taxi home are very sensible and good decisions for safety (so please keep doing that). However, it requires extra car rides to pick up your car again, adding to carbon emissions.

When you are drunk and at home suddenly the ingredients in the fridge don’t seem as appetizing, so you order takeout. This needs to be delivered, creates extra trash, and can waste the food in your fridge!

Another cause of carbon emissions and environmental degradation can be the silly drunken mistakes we’ve all made, like leaving the oven on overnight.

All in all, when we drink alcohol it’s very easy to stop thinking or caring about the environmental impact of our decisions.

So in all three cases, reducing the amount of alcohol your drink can be very good for the environment.

Does Drinking Alcohol-Free Help The Environment?

So, drinking less alcohol can really help minimise your environmental footprint, but what about drinking alcohol-free?

Well, sadly, to make alcohol-free drinks you first create alcohol and then remove it through a high-energy distilling process. So at first glance, the impact of alcohol-free drinks is still not great. However, the biggest difference comes in how you consume the product. People tend to drink far fewer alcohol-free drinks than alcohol. So the impact of a drink is spread over a longer period of time.

On top of this, you won’t get drunk on alcohol-free drinks so can make environmentally conscious decisions. Non-alcoholic containers are more likely to be recycled, meaning that there is less waste around packaging.

An Eco-conscious Movement

Much of the mindful drinking, or alcohol-free movement centres around more mindful consumption of alcohol. This extends into leading a more mindful existence in general. In keeping with this many alcohol-free brands are working hard to minimise the environmental impact of their product. They do this, for example, with more sustainable farming practices, eco-friendly packaging, and a focus on getting customers to recycle.

What Can You Do To Improve Your Environmental Footprint?

When drinking alcohol-free drinks there are some ways you can improve your environmental footprint:

• Choose brands that are open and mindful of their environmental impact, actively trying to reduce it.

• Drink locally sourced alcohol-free drinks so that they do not have to be flown in. The UK alcohol-free beverage industry is booming, so make the most of some of the delicious home-produced drinks on offer.

• Make sure to recycle all the alcohol-free packaging you get.

Sign Up For JOMO 

If you are looking to explore the world of alcohol-free drinks, and want to sample a range of mindfully selected drinks then sign up for the JOMO subscription box. Each box contains a range of alcohol-free spirits, ready-to-drink beverages, mixers, garnishes and snacks, all wrapped in completely environmentally friendly packaging and sent straight to your front door.

This is the best way to sample a selection of alcohol-free drinks, from ethically sourced brands often not available in the supermarket. So sign up now and find your new favourite alcohol-free drink!