The “King of Beers,” Indeed
When the snow melts but before the Canada Mayflower’s green shoots pierce the leaf litter, the winter’s accumulation of beer cans and bottles emerges alongside the road near our house. Today, the day designated for roadside clean-up in Canterbury, we headed out, equipped with blue trash bags provided by the town recycling center.
Walking from the corner of Mudgett Hill Road to Shaker Road and back, we found a few styrofoam containers, a small load of shingles, one empty pack of cigarettes, and some other shreds of plastic and paper. But mostly what we found was bottles and cans. And this gives me a scientific tool to measure the drinking preferences of local litterers (or the littering habits of local drinkers).
Today’s collection: 64 aluminum cans, 12 plastic bottles, and 29 glass bottles.
What always impresses me most about the roadside trash is Anheuser Busch’s commanding market share. Within the AB family, Bud Light is clearly the most popular. Of the 64 cans, 30 (47%) were Bud Light. That brand also captured 48% in the smaller bottle category. Counting other brands, AB made up 64% of the cans and 55% of the bottles.
And that makes me wonder if Bud drinkers more prone to littering. Or is Bud’s share of the market so commanding that these statistics show the company’s customers are more responsible than the average beer drinker.
Of course I have shared my findings with the company, via its web site. I’ll let you know if they write back.
Wait, what about Narragansett?
Sorry, no ‘Gansett on Asby Road today.
Orange is attracted to Natural Light. It’s something we do up at the vacation home as well. With the stream beside the road, we find ourselves sometimes heading down the ravine to fetch the litter. Found a TV rolled onto our property last fall. Took a special trip up to go fetch it, and of course we paid to dispose of it.
Great Arnie,
Of course, similar ‘bear’ cans up my way are plentiful, especially in the wooded stretch of road. Hope AB replies. How could they ignore, such careful market research!
[…] But I can say that the results of this year’s survey are mostly consistent with my analyses from 2013 and […]