Heineken is to recycle its entire stock of brown glass bottles, which amounts to around 15,000 tonnes of glass. The international brewer has traditionally bottled its beer into brown and green coloured bottles, but the company recently announced that it will in future produce all of its beers in its trademark green bottles.
The contract for recycling the bottles has been awarded to Van Tuijl, which was acquired by the Shanks Group in 2011 who invested in the firm to double its recycling capacity. A new recycling installation was commissioned this year that both expands the business and significantly improves the quality of the glass recyclate produced.
Michael van Hulst, managing director of Shanks, Benelux, said: “Heineken is a key customer for us and we are delighted to be helping them transition to green bottles as part of their stated ambition to be the greenest international brewer in the world. This contract clearly illustrates how Shanks enables its customers to achieve their sustainability targets.”