The Dregs From Your Cocktails Are Being Made Into Boozy Yet Fruity Soaps

As depressing, cruel and weirdly backwards as 2016 has been, we’ve gotta remember that people are still doing amazing things that, in conjunction with one another, could fkn save the planet.

Key amongst our Things To Increasingly Worry About has been unsustainable, costly, and environmentally-shithouse levels of food wastage.
Now, New Zealand vodka company 42BELOW has figured out how to nip one niche form of wastage in the bud, ’cause they’ve launched an initiative that turns leftover cocktail fruit into soap. Said suds are then returned to the bars – free of charge.
The team has already signed up a bunch of venues across Australia and New Zealand, and, since launching in early December, have turned 400kgs of fruit waste into 20,000 sachets and 400 bottles of liquid soap. 
The left-overs from about 3,200 cocktails have been transformed into their Eco Soap, which is probably the best possible outcome 3,200 cocktails could ever aim for. Check out a bottle of the stuff below.

The crew at Sydney’s Stitch was one of the first to jump on board the lemon soap bandwagon, and drinks director Christophe Lehoux described the recycling process to PEDESTRIAN.TV as relatively simple:
“The process to turn the fruit to soap is really easy too. Instead of putting the used fruit into the bin, we put it in a special bag provided by 42BELOW who come and collect it every week. 

From there, we get the soap delivered for free. It all depends on how much fruit we provide but we’ve been using scraps from the kitchen and bar so to date, we have received 25 litres of soap for free.”
With a bunch of bars across Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast also signing up to recycle cocktail refuse, we’re guessing the company isn’t done yet.
So drink freely friends, and know that, by drinking cocktails, you could now basically save the planet.
Photo: HBO.

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