IBA Partners with Endeavour Group, PakTech, Visy and East Coast Canning to Reduce Waste

In order to deliver on the IBA’s sustainability strategic pillar we have formed a partnership with Endeavour Group, East Coast Canning, Visy and PakTech to reuse and recycle beer can clips.

This new model reflects systems already in place in the States and Canada and presents a great opportunity to manage and mitigate our impact on the environment as these clips will no longer end up in landfill.

According to research, the global economy is only 9% circular therefore 91% of the 92.8 billion tonnes of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass entering the economy ended up in a waste stream.

With as much as 50% of packaging produced and sold in Australia ending up in landfill, if we fail to act, by 2040, the volume of plastic on the market will double, the annual volume of plastic entering the ocean will almost triple, and ocean plastic stocks will quadruple.

The good news is that research also indicates that 50% of consumer packaged goods growth from 2013 to 2018 came from sustainability-marketed products. Most importantly, products marketed as sustainable grew 5.6 times faster than those that were not.

The IBA Board, our Sustainability Project Team and trade partners believe we have a role to play in facilitating change in this space so we have joined forces to embark on a trial project to reuse and recycle PakTech clips.

What do we need from you?

We are looking for breweries who care about their impact on the environment and are able to easily access the Dan Murphy and BWS stores listed below to let us know if you are interested in participating in the trial.

The trial will focus on stores across Victoria, NSW and Queensland over a six month period and we will be monitoring and meeting regularly to ensure any bumps are ironed out along the way.

What does the trial look like?

Firstly, the promotional campaign will encourage customers to return used can clips (all colours, 4 & 6 packs) to branded collection boxes located at the stores noted below.

Clips would then be collected by our participating breweries and East Coast Canning, cleaned and reused. Those that are damaged or for some reason not viable for reuse would be sent to Visy and converted into HDPE resin. This resin is then returned to PakTech to be used to make new clips – and the cycle continues.

At this stage the distribution of unusable PakTech’s back to Visy would be the cost of the participating brewery however we are working hard to find a distribution partner to bring this cost down. Our current estimates indicate it would cost approx. $10 to send around 500 clips to Visy.

If successful, the trial would extend to other states, grow in sophistication and scale and will include including regional locations. If you’ve got any questions you’re most welcome to contact Diarmaid O’Mordha, Quality & Sustainability Manager for Endeavour Group.