PRECIOUS METALS
WHO KNEW
THE ILLEGAL scrap
metal market would be so lucrative? With metal prices
rising, beer makers are anticipating losing hundreds of
thousands of kegs and millions of dollars this year as more
and more kegs are being stolen and sold for scrap. The beer
industry is joining with the scrap metal recycling industry
to let metal buyers know they can’t accept kegs unless
they’re sold by the breweries that own them. They’re also
pushing for legislation that would require recyclers to ask
for ID and proof of ownership from would-be sellers.
According to the Beer Institute, keg thefts cost the
industry as much as $5O million a year. An empty keg can get
anywhere from $15 to $55 or more at scrap yards. Some
keg-buying customers opt to forgo their deposits, which can
sometimes range from $1O to $3O, because they’ll make more
if they sell to scrap dealers. Others search for empty kegs
in alleys or anywhere else restaurants, bars or distributors
might store them. And then there are the quick score keg
heists where thieves will grab an entire truckload’s worth
of empties before a store can get there to pick it up. As a
result, prices have gone up about $3 to $4 a keg. Only about
12 percent of the nation’s beer is sold in kegs, but it
costs brewers as much as $15O to replace a . In the past few
years, breweries collectively have lost about 3OO,OOO kegs a
year out of about 1O.7 million in circulation. While many
large brewers are desperately spending large sums of money
to try and figure out ways to better track kegs, which
usually have a 2O-year shelf life, one small brewery owner
took matters into his own hands with a fairly simple
solution. Brad Wynn, of Big Boss Brewery and Horniblow’s
Tavern in Raleigh, North Carolina, bumped up his deposit fee
from $1O to $7O a keg – more than the beer that goes in it.
“It’s been effective,” he said. “When I send a keg out of
here and somebody’s putting $7O on the line, I’m getting
that keg back.” And if that doesn’t work you can always try
installing a GPS chip in the keg.
