United Kingdom – International beer brewer Heineken has enlisted the help of UK-based waste management specialist Shanks Group to recycle 15 000 tonnes of its brown glass bottles. Under the contract, Shanks’ recently-acquired Van Tuijl glass recycling business will process the material.
Besides Heineken’s well-known green beer bottle, a brown alternative had been produced exclusively for the Dutch market for more than 80 years. However, the brewer has now decided to go entirely ‘green’, withdrawing the dark lager’s traditional brown bottle with the aim of phasing it out by February next year. The significant inventory still on its hands is said to approximate to 9 million bottles.
Van Tuijl was acquired by Shanks in 2011 and has since doubled its capacity; earlier this year, a new furnace was commissioned to optimise the quality of the glass recyclate. With operations in the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK and Canada, Shanks handled approximately 7.8 million tonnes of waste in 2011 and achieved an overall recycling/recovery rate of 78%.
For more information, visit: www.heineken.com and www.shanksplc.co.uk
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