A new sustainability report for 2015 from Dutch brewer Heineken includes its progress on achieving the circular economy.
This is the first time that the company has included this information in its sustainability report.
In the circular economy section, it shows that Heineken recycled 94% of its residual products including brewers’ grains, surplus yeast, packaging materials and wastewater residue.
It also reused over 93% of its waste water and returned it to surface water as well as developing a technique at its DB Breweries facility in New Zealand to combine surplus yeast residue with high-grade petrol for the world’s first commercially available biofuel from beer by-product.
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Heineken also welcomed the European Commission’s circular economy package published last year as it considers it “an important step towards a more competitive and resource efficient circular economy in Europe”.
In order to work towards this, in 2015 Heineken rolled out a lighter 330ml bottle using about 5,000 tonnes less glass per year.
It will also be introducing a returnable bottle in some markets this year.
