Resort Serves up Mixture of Recycling, Cocktails

What if sitting down to relax with a mixed drink could relax your conscience, too? The Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale, in a new partnership with Phoenix-based glassware producer Refresh Glass, is now serving up just that. Refresh Glass recycles empty wine bottles from the resort’s upscale restaurants into unique and attractive tumblers, which the resort buys back and uses to serve chic cocktails. The glasses are also available for purchase online.

Kim Cole, the resort's spokesperson, said that so far, the mix of drinking and recycling is going down smoothly. In shades of amber, emerald, and soft blue, the tumblers are handsome and fit in aesthetically at the classy Mexican restaurant in which they are served. Moreover, Cole said, guests are intrigued by the possibility that the glass in which they’re having their margarita could be the same out of which they drank pinot noir a few weeks ago.

“A lot of it is curiosity,” she said, offering that the program brings in elements of community, beauty, and environmental sensibility: “It had the appeal from the aesthetic standpoint, it was a local company, and it had the giving-back angle.”

Now that’s a combination worth raising a glass to.

--Tim McDonnell