Helping Salty Turtle Beer switch from plastic to paper-based multipack can packaging

How veteran-owned Salty Turtle Beer Co. is building a sustainable brand

The Salty Turtle Beer Co. taproom in Surf City, NC.

Scroll the "About" section of the Salty Turtle Beer Company website, find "Meet the Team" and then have yourself a nostalgic chuckle. 

Each team member names their favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle® and strikes a ninja pose wearing the appropriate colored eye mask when you scroll over their pics. The reference isn't just a nod to the business' coastal namesake but also its origins as two of Salty Turtle's three founders are military vets.

On the surface, you might not associate a coastal business focused on sustainability and conservation with former Marines. Many vet-owned brands seem to be more obviously tied to the military, like Combat Flip Flops®, Black Rifle Coffee Company® or Recon™ Rings. Vets Dan Callender and Dean Kelley wanted to go a different route.

"The veteran tie has been done a lot, and we really wanted to home in on the community and the Surf City area,” said Founder Dan Callender. “Turtles are beloved here; they nest on the island. So, we felt like it was perfect."

Right place, right time

Callender always thought he'd start his own business; entrepreneurship was on his mind even before the military. Both Callender, a former communications officer, and Kelley, a former scout sniper, didn’t know each other while they were stationed at Camp Lejune military base in North Carolina. After getting out of the military, both settled a half hour down the coast in nearby Surf City.

Living in the same neighborhood, they met and quickly found a common interest in home brewing. During their shared beers and conversations, they realized something that charted them on the course of starting their own brewery together.

"Wilmington is about 45 minutes south of us, and breweries there were blowing up. There were none in this area. So, the community was really underserved, and we knew the Surf City area and the area by the base were just going to continue to grow," Callender said.

The Salty Turtle Beer Co. founders enjoy a brew outside their Surf City taproom. Left to Right: Dean Kelley, Zack White and Dan Callender.

Seizing the opportunity, the two partnered with North Carolina-native Zack White and opened their flagship location in Surf City in 2017. The Salty Turtle Beer Company taproom was immediately a hit, and it’s since grown to include an event space and another location in Raleigh.

"We opened in December, and the winter months are the heavy tourist season. We were slammed! There were no other breweries around. We were the first one in the whole county."

Choosing community and sustainability

While they didn't choose a military-theme, the founders maintained their give-back attitude, desiring for Salty Turtle to be engrained in the Greater Topsail community. Originally from San Diego, Callender's West-Coast mentality also made it easy to keep the environment in mind when making business decisions.

The first order of business was saving their namesake: the sea turtles. Not-so-coincidentally, there is a major sea turtle rescue in Surf City, setting up the perfect partnership.
"Since opening, we pick a beer every quarter, and then a dollar per beer sold goes back to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. So, they're guaranteed to get a check every quarter."

A sea turtle trudges through the sand on the North Carolina coastline.

With the sea turtles always top of mind, the Salty Turtle crew has taken much effort to reduce and eliminate its use of plastic. If team members need straws, they use paper ones. Managers train staff to use bins marked for recovery and recycling. And they do what they can to educate and work with their partners, like food truck vendors, encouraging them to use paper products instead of containers made from a plastic substrate like Styrofoam.

Selecting the right packaging

Today, there are more viable options for sustainable packaging than in years past. The Salty Turtle team made it a priority to search out plastic alternatives and choose ones more aligned with their mission.

Callender connected to Smurfit Westrock through their packer, New Realm Brewing. Besides using our corrugated trays, the founders of Salty Turtle chose to use the KapCollar™ keg collar instead of a plastic cap after seeing kegs with the paper-based keg collar at the JamPacked Craft Beer and Music Festival. The event focuses on sustainable beverage practices.

 Salty Turtle Beer Kegs are branded with the KapCollar paper-based keg collar.

Callender says choosing KapCollar keg collar was a no-brainer for Salty Turtle, but he wanted to do more to address the packaging of their cans. They originally packaged Salty Turtle beer cans with 100-percent-recycled plastic 4-pack handles, and they wanted a more sustainable alternative. 

 “We just felt like the plastic 4-pack handles were negating our mission to be eco-friendly. We really wanted to get rid of single-use plastics,” said Callender. “So, from there we went to cartons, which gave us some more opportunities for branding, and then to the CanCollar. We like the way you can customize it; that’s huge. In the brewing community, you have to put your brand on everything, especially when you have an awesome logo.” 

Can-Collar® paper-based beverage rings hold 4-to-6-packs of cans, and like cartons, they can also be printed on and branded, helping brands grab attention from the shelf. After adding the 4-pack cartons, the Salty Turtle team began using CanCollar in the summer of 2024, which helped them reach a new level of efficiency using the Chunk® machine to apply their packaging. 

Salty Turtle Beer packed in CanCollar paper-based beverage rings.

"Applying CanCollar, we're now able to do a case at a time instead of a 4-pack at a time. So not only are we doing a sustainable and good practice, but it saves us money in the long run."

"Usually, they have to palletize their finished goods outside under a tent,” said Smurfit Westrock Account Lead Ben Humprey, who works on the Salty Turtle account. "Because of the Chunk machine and what it's able to do, they were able to shorten their line and get rid of another table, which meant, the day I saw them, they were able to fully pack out the product inside and not out in the rain."

Growth and the future

While focusing on sustainability helps the environment and the turtles, the Salty Turtle crew also partners with other local organizations to further support the community. Of course, that includes causes involving the troops and vets, like Paddle 4 Troops and Stop Soldier Suicide. The team often creates a brew just for the cause with some proceeds going right to the organization.

Lead Mixologist Candace King pours a brew in the taproom.

Supporting the community and its growth, in turn, supports their own. Around 70 percent of the Salty Turtle staff is somehow affiliated with the military, either as a vet or a military spouse. For Callender and Kelley, mentorship is also a large part of how they help their own and further personal growth. 

"There are a lot of things that you do in the military that you really can't do in the civilian sector," said Callender. "So, we'll meet with former Marines or Marines who are transitioning out if they have any questions about what it's like to own a small business, whether it's a brewery, another type of business, or even a side hustle they're starting so they have something when they retire."
Like the team at Salty Turtle, Smurfit Westrock offers many employment opportunities and lots of support for those transitioning out of the military. Veterans are encouraged to apply.

You can also contact our team to learn more about sustainable options for plastic beverage packaging and how you can meet sustainability targets by reducing use of plastic.