CSR in Supply Chains of Brewing Industry - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 105

The initiative has resulted in limiting the increase in the costs of storing waste at
the city landfill (Grupa Kapitałowa Ǚ ywiec S.A. 2012 ).
3.3 Sustainable Packing
Packaging is essential to the brewing sector, because it provides safe and fresh
delivery of beer to consumers. In recent years there has been a move to reduce the
amount of materials in packaging, i.e. light-weighting, for example by minimis-
ing the amount of glass used in glass bottles. There is a balance between reduc-
ing the weight of packaging/recycled content to reduce environmental impact and
ensuring product safety and minimal waste due to breakages. Figure 5 shows that
there is a variation in packaging materials and volumes in the EU. This is a reflec-
tion on consumer preference, culture, climate and the geographical area where the
beer is being consumed. All materials which are used are recyclable and some
are reusable. The materials most commonly used are steel, glass, aluminium and
plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Every country has a different approach
to packaging for serving beer. However, the challenges each country faces are
still largely the same in minimising the environmental impact of packaging.
The main focus areas are in using reusable packaging, recycling, light weight-
ing and increasing the proportion of recycled materials in newly made packaging
(Donoghue et al. 2012 ).
Fig. 5 Packaging used by European breweries (adopted from Berkhout et al. 2013 )