Going green with Bud APAC’s newly launched lightest aluminium canned beer in China

The Budweiser Brewing Company APAC (Bud APAC) recently launched its lightest aluminium beer cans at the circular packaging seminar at the Putian Brewery in Fujian Province, China. The event strengthens Bud APAC's circular packaging strategy, which aligns with the "reduce-reuse-recycle-recover" philosophy, to facilitate the transition towards a low-carbon economy.

During the event, Bud APAC introduced its latest innovation in China, unveiling an exceptionally lightweight aluminium can for beer. This can, with a capacity of 330ml, weighs a mere 9.57g, representing a 4 per cent reduction in weight compared to the prevailing industry norm.

Jan Clysner, Vice President of Sustainability and procurement of Bud APAC, said, "As the largest brewer in the region, we are fully committed to enhancing our efforts in promoting circularity to mitigate our impact on the climate and environment while empowering our value chain partners to reduce their carbon emissions. Only through working together can we realise our ambition of achieving net zero across our value chain by 2040."

The average carbon footprint per can is just 185g, over 100g less than the baseline in 2017. Bud APAC's aluminium packaging has helped to cut more than 40,000 tonnes of carbon emissions compared to the 2017 baseline, with carbon emissions per can down by more than 30 per cent.

Bud APAC is now engaged in proactively resolving the obstacles associated with the recycling of same-grade aluminium cans. This is accomplished via the implementation of Can-to-Can recycling, a closed-loop approach explicitly designed for used beverage cans (UBC). This initiative leverages technology advancements and collaborative efforts with industry partners.

Bud APAC has promoted carbon reduction transformation among its upstream partners through various initiatives. These include advocating for the use of solar energy in production, the recycling and reuse of waste heat, and the adoption of the Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) system. These efforts aim to facilitate the manufacturing of environmentally friendly and energy-efficient green aluminium cans by the company's aluminium can suppliers.