Reuse, reduce, recycle is message in these bottles

Updated: 2014-10-15 08:27

By Wang Zhuoqiong(China Daily USA)

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Brewer's environmentally friendly program benefits all stakeholders

It takes about a million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill. But a brewer in West China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region has proved that re-using beer bottles is not an impossible mission.

Based in Yinchuan, capital of the autonomous region, Ningxia Xixia Jianiang Brewery Co Ltd, which is 70 percent owned by Denmark's Carlsberg Group, with Ningxia Nongken Group owning the rest, is the largest local brewer by market share.

Xixia Jianiang's brands have captured 75 percent of the autonomous region's market and 39 percent of the central and western markets, according to industry data.

"While the average recycling rate in the industry is less than 60 percent, Xixia Jianiang's is more than 85 percent," said Du Hui, general manager of the company.

The process to encourage the re-use of beer bottles starts with dealers collecting used ones from retailers and vendors and bringing them back to the manufacturer, where the factory checks their condition. Undamaged bottles are then washed and sanitized before being refilled with beer.

The brewery has been engaged in the environmentally friendly program since 2007. It has found that it is important to motivate the participants.

As an incentive for the distributors and retail terminals, Du said the company has combined recycling with marketing.

Dealers can make money not only by selling beer but also from collecting used bottles. For retailers, quickly returning bottles also saves inventory space.

The factory has workers quickly and efficiently unload the thousands of empty bottles that arrive back at the manufacturing sites every day.

The unloading process is crucial for the program to be sustainable, the general manager said. If the factory does not unload the bottles quickly, dealers won't return with more bottles, Du said. And using plastic bins instead of woven bags has decreased the chance of breakage, the brewery has found.

The cost of re-using one bottle is about 0.3 yuan, much lower than the cost of creating a new bottle, which is about 1 yuan (16 US cents).

Xixia Jianiang's factory of processing recycled bottles is fully automatic. On average, it takes about a half-hour to examine and clean a bottle, and the recycling system can process about 500 bottles per minute.

wangzhuoqiong@chinadaily.com.cn

Reuse, reduce, recycle is message in these bottles

 Reuse, reduce, recycle is message in these bottles

An employee examines used beer bottles for recycling at Ningxia Xixia Jianiang Brewery Co Ltd in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Provided to China Daily

(China Daily USA 10/15/2014 page15)

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