AB InBev’s Accra Brewery partners with Miniplast to launch plastic recycling initiative

GHANA – Accra Brewery Limited (ABL), a subsidiary of multinational brewer Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev has partnered with Environment360 (E360) and Miniplast Ltd to launch its Beta Malt PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) plastic recycling initiative in Accra, Ghana.

Environment360 is a non-profit organization which is helping to reduce plastic waste in Ghana.

Miniplast Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of industrial products in Ghana which recycles plastic and reuses the plastic to make products such as plastic chairs.

With this partnership, E360’s waste pickers who are mostly women from several neighbouring communities will collect ABL’s Beta Malt plastic waste bottles and deliver them to the Old Fadama collection station.

The empty plastic bottles would be weighed, quantity recorded and collectors paid for the empty bottles presented.

 Miniplast will thereafter transport them to its manufacturing plant for recycling.

This is in line with ABL’s 2025 sustainability Goal on reusable or recyclable packing, which requires the company to partner with suppliers to either make bottles 100% returnable or use majority recycled materials by 2025.

To achieve this initiative ABL has so far introduced a new Returnable Glass Bottle (RGB) for its non-alcoholic brand, Beta Malt in 2017.

Research shows that eight million tonnes of plastic leak into the ocean every year and with a business as usual scenario, according to research done by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, by 2050 there could be more plastics than fish in the ocean by weight.

The statistics are overwhelming thus companies and organizations have set up initiatives to prevent the catastrophic occurrence both in Africa and Globally.

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) recently introduced a 2L returnable bottle made of PET plastic that can be reused up to 14 times. Thereafter they can be recycled and made into new bottles.

The returnable bottles are made of PET plastic and are labelled with a new paper label, with ‘RETURNABLE’ appearing in green on the front of the bottle.

Once a bottle is returned to Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa, it will go on a looped journey to be cleaned to Coca-Cola’s stringent measures and requirements, then refilled and start its next life-cycle.

When the bottle reaches the end of its 14 useable lifecycles, after being returned to Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa it will be recycled and turned into another PET plastic bottle.

The rollout is being piloted in the Mandela Bay and Border-Kei districts in the Eastern Cape and, if successful, is expected to be rolled out to the rest of the country.