Blefa is a Founding Member of New Steel Keg Association

 Stainless steel kegs’ reusability and 30+ year lifespan make them the ideal circular choice for bars and restaurants. These benefits make stainless steel kegs a vital part of the beverage industry, providing the catalyst for Blefa and other leading global supply keg chain companies to launch the new Steel Keg Association.

“Steel kegs are reusable, have a lifespan of decades and guarantee optimum freshness and the best taste of the beverages stored in them, whether beer or wine, soft drinks or table water. The kegs run smoothly on filling and cleaning equipment and are easy to handle in bars and restaurants,” says Blefa Managing Director Alexander Brand, who’s also a member of the Steel Keg Association’s board of directors. “At the same time, we offer many options for branding and customization. The combination of sustainability, hygienic storage and professional appearance is the perfect solution for our customers. With the newly founded Steel Keg Association, we want to give these advantages a unified voice. Blefa is proud to work closely with other industry leaders regarding promoting these benefits.”

“Most people have never thought of kegs as the ultimate reusable containers… when you choose draft from steel kegs, you’re making the most sustainable choice by removing single-use packages from recycling and landfill streams,” said Dan Vorlage, Executive Director of the newly formed association and MicroStar Logistics VP of Global Marketing. “Take beer enjoyed in bars and restaurants in the U.S. as an example. Kegs presently remove about half of all single-use beer containers from the bar / restaurant waste stream each year, that’s approximately 6 billion containers… converting the other half to draft removes a combined 12+ billion single-use containers. That’s a goal worth raising a pint to, and we’re encouraging others to join in.”

The Steel Keg Association’s marketing programs are supported by a new ISO-14040 framework Life Cycle Analysis from Deloitte. Kyle Tanger, Managing Director in Deloitte’s U.S. sustainability practice, says “Steel kegs are truly one of the best examples of reusability and circularity, with decades of reuse potential. In the U.S., compared to single use containers, steel kegs save over 400,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and keep roughly 500,000 tons of packaging out of landfills each year.”

Blefa will support the Steel Keg Association’s efforts and the beverage industry by producing high quality, environmentally-friendly stainless steel kegs that are guaranteed for 30+ years. The Blefa Excellence Network provides keg maintenance for customers around the globe to keep their assets in optimum condition for freshness.

About Blefa

Blefa Beverage Systems is one of the world’s leading suppliers of stainless steel kegs for beer, wine and soft drinks and is part of the internationally operating Artemis Holding group (Aarburg, Switzerland). Blefa Beverage Systems has over 155 employees in Germany and approximately 70 in the USA. All our beer, wine and soft drinks kegs in stainless steel are manufactured at both our headquarters in Kreuztal, Germany. Our US facilities in La Vergne, (TN), Pottstown, (PA) and Vancouver, (WA) does not only provide our customers with kegs from stock (Kwik Kegs), but also with both a stationary and mobile keg service.

About SKA

The Steel Keg Association is a marketing-focused non-profit organization, on a mission to help increase the volume of beer and other beverages served from stainless steel kegs. The Association’s founding members represent a diverse collection of leaders in the global steel keg supply chain: Blefa, Hillebrand Gori, MicroMatic, MicroStar Logistics, Schaefer Container Systems and THIELMANN. To learn more or get involved, email info@steelkegs.org or visit www.steelkegassociation.org.