Heineken wants to end the difficulties of glass recycling

Mauro Homem, Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs at the Heineken Group
Image: Press Release.

Glass is one of those materials that evokes ambivalent feelings. On one hand, the combination of sand, sodium, and calcium has the incredible ability to be 100% infinitely recycled without losing any quality. On the other hand, it is difficult to transport and has a low resale value. As a result, less than 25% of the glass used in the country today is recycled.

“Many people think glass is a villain, but it’s quite the opposite: it’s an excellent sustainable material. But a reverse logistics system is needed. Some countries are converting all their plastic into glass, for example. We need to structure this in Brazil as well,” says Mauro Homem, Vice President of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs at the Heineken Group.

Just over a month ago, the company announced a partnership with Ambipar, which works with environmental management, to increase the circularity of glass bottles, the main material in Heineken’s packaging, and manage the 500,000 tons of bottles it discards annually. The starting point is to cover areas where the volume of packaging is high, but glass collection is almost non-existent. Reception, sorting, and glass processing centers (hubs) will be built so that, at the end of the process, the waste is reintegrated into the glass industry, increasing the percentage of recycled content in bottles. The idea is to create a closed system that ensures reverse logistics and better remuneration for all links in this chain.

The partnership is part of Spin, a new ecosystem of sustainability solutions from Heineken, which aims to build new businesses that go beyond beer. “We’re even planting lemons, something we’ve never done before,” says Homem, referring to the partnership with Rizoma, which develops organic regenerative agricultural systems. The company’s goal is to enhance the economic viability of its sustainability commitments.

In the following interview, the executive discusses the economic necessity of glass recycling, explains ways to improve material reuse, and highlights the key players in this chain: waste pickers.

Ecoa: The sustainable potential of glass is so significant that the UN has already promoted it. However, the material, which can take up to five thousand years to decompose, continues to accumulate in landfills. Why?

Mauro Homem: Glass is an infinitely recyclable material. It can be broken, melted, and remade countless times in glass factories. This recycling process has a low cost in terms of energy and materials. In other words, it’s worth recycling glass. The challenge is ensuring that it reaches the recycling process. The logistics of transportation are very complex. Not to mention that the resale value of glass is much lower compared to other materials, like aluminum, for example. This leads to a lack of interest from waste pickers.

Ecoa: You mentioned aluminum, which currently leads the recycling ranking in Brazil, unlike glass. Heineken works with both materials. What is the difference between them?

Mauro Homem: Brazil holds the world record for aluminum can recycling for beverages. There’s a strong market in the country. Many people depend on collecting cans to survive. The material is easy to handle and transport: you can crush it and carry many cans. Glass is not like that. It has a lower market value and a much higher logistical cost. That’s why we want to create a market where none exists. Shorten the distances. In partnership with Ambipar, we will establish 9 hubs across the country for glass collection – this will increase volume and shift the needle on glass recycling. Recycling is important not only to reduce environmental impact but also as an economic factor in our business. It’s cheaper for the company to recycle a bottle than to produce a new one.

Ecoa: What is the role of consumers in this process?

Mauro Homem: If consumers don’t understand that the bottle needs to go back, nothing will work. The best solution is returnable packaging, and this already works in bars and restaurants. To engage consumers, we created the “Volte Sempre” (Always Return) program, with collection machines in supermarkets and condominiums.

Ecoa: There is another important group: the waste pickers. What is the significance of these professionals for Heineken?

Mauro Homem: Before talking about business, it’s good to remember that, overall, without waste pickers, the environmental quality would be much worse. You see people cursing cart drivers on the streets when, in fact, they should be thanking them for the service they provide. For the company, the waste pickers’ work is essential. Without them, we can’t get the packaging back into the cycle, and therefore we can’t meet our goal of material circularity. And as I said, this translates into costs. We have several initiatives with waste pickers through the Heineken Institute because we want them to work with dignity, with both physical and mental health. We need to amplify the voices of waste pickers, and until society recognizes these professionals as service providers, the chain will never be complete.

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