Circularity & Resource Management: Circular economy in the beverage industry

Framework conditions of the circular economy in the beverage industry

When considering the topic of circularity and resource management, a focus on resource conservation is visible in many players (plant and machine manufacturers). This is mainly due to the demands of beverage and liquid food manufacturers, which (if listed) have set comprehensive sustainability targets. Initially, these targets mostly concerned Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions – i.e. energy-related tasks – but increasingly, tasks in the upstream and downstream supply chain are also being addressed. Disclosure requirements have now been introduced in some world markets, so that pressure is being exerted on manufacturers not only by consumers but also by governments.

The EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) also addresses numerous issues that are relevant to beverage manufacturers.

Although these regulations are focused on Europe, they are internationally relevant because they affect manufacturers in third countries that want to export to the EU. One example of the global effectiveness of EU legislation is the Machinery Directive, which has been in force since 2006 and is defined by many manufacturers worldwide as the basis for machine design and safety and applied to their own market.

The next wave of resource-saving activities could be triggered by the EU regulation on packaging and packaging waste (PPWR), which also affects the beverage industry with clear rules: it contains a clear mandate to move towards a higher proportion of recycled material in packaging and to strengthen packaging cycles.

However, this is only one aspect of a circular economy, because there is also a lot of potential for improvement in other areas of action in beverage and liquid food production.

Circular Economy Status quo: Little progress, but big ambitions in the beverage industry

A study has found that ‘... the food and beverage industry has made relatively little progress in reducing its energy consumption. From 2000 to 2020, the food industry was only able to reduce its energy intensity by 6%, while other industries, such as the textile industry and vehicle manufacturing, achieved a reduction of 47% over the same period.’

In another study that compares several product sectors, the food and beverage industry is largely in the middle of the pack in terms of its position and activities regarding the circular economy. In the ‘Ambition & Strategy’ category, however, the F&B industry achieves a high score of 9.4 (out of 10) for its ‘publicly declared circular vision and/or ambition’.

The beverage industry has formulated ambitions in many areas: for example, 10 major global manufacturers – including Coca-Cola, Heineken and Diageo – have founded the REfresh Alliance, a consortium for the use of renewable energy in the beverage industry's supply chain.

What are the fields of action for the beverage industry in the area of the circular economy?

Starting with the sustainable production and processing of raw materials, there are numerous fields of action for the beverage industry. Product development that incorporates key aspects of the circular economy from the outset. Further development of process technology with a focus on resource conservation and energy efficiency. Packaging solutions that incorporate the entire recyclable material cycle and consider disposal and recycling as early as the design stage. AI-supported optimisation of the life cycles of production machines. Upstream and downstream considerations in strategic corporate planning. The list of fields of action is long and can be extended as required.

In many areas, companies in the beverage and liquid food industry have been active for a long time:

• using residual materials to generate energy,
• reducing energy consumption,
• saving, treating and reusing water,
• recycling packaging,
• reducing the amount of packaging material used,
• etc.

But what does the future hold? A few examples from current research and pilot projects show the potential impact that circularity and resource management could have:

• Use of residual materials in biofermentation to obtain proteins,
• Use of lean gas from the germination box in the malthouse to produce biomass
• Alternative raw materials with better climate resilience (water-saving grain varieties, pest-resistant hop varieties),
• Use of ‘alternative water’, e.g. TUM initiative
• Changing process parameters, e.g. through load flexibilisation,
• increased activities for the separation of plastic fractions,
• use of bread waste for the production of beer
• Optimisation of milk alternatives, which ultimately lead to more water savings
• Use of agricultural residual and by-products by means of recycling and fermentation for the production of beverages and food
• Sustainable sourcing of raw materials – tracking supply chains

Circular economy in process technology

The brewery process technology is particularly rewarding for achieving energy efficiency targets or energy self-sufficient production: with energy recovery within the own brewing process, the different temperature profiles required within production can be balanced out, thus saving electrical and heat energy.

The strategies are further complemented by biomass recycling from the spent grains, from which biofuels are obtained. This category also includes the production of biofuels from the dealcoholisation of beer, which opens up potential in the long term with the increasing consumption of NOLO beers. However, this use of recovered alcohol is currently considered a niche application.

Comprehensive transparency is often the basis: energy management systems – reveal potential for energy efficiency. This is where the boundary between digitalisation and resource conservation disappears.

A fundamental and overarching consideration of the energy supply is relevant: partner projects are already being realised that use residual heat from steel production, and overarching energy partnerships are being started – for example, Heineken ensures the energy supply of its Spanish breweries with its own solar thermal parks. Solar thermal energy is also becoming an interesting prospect in northern latitudes for the energy supply. The flexible use of different energy sources is also an important factor for beverage manufacturers when it comes to energy supply: for example, there are new combustion chamber systems that can seamlessly switch between different fuels (e.g. between biogas and hydrogen).

When it comes to water, resource management is crucial

In addition to the question of energy supply, the resource water in particular is also a target of optimisation measures with numerous security and savings measures: with a specially designed recycling plant for the brewery, water consumption per hl of beer at the Carlsberg Group's Fredericia site was reduced from the already very low level of 2.9 hl to around 1.4 hl in 2020.

In 2024, a beer made from treated wastewater was presented at IFAT: the beer from the Weihenstephan brewery was brewed with brewing water that had passed through the so-called 4th treatment stage to remove trace substances and was further treated at the Chair of Urban Water Management at the Technical University of Munich.

The necessity of handling the wastewater from food and beverage production carefully requires investments in many beverage companies: discharging wastewater into municipal networks requires pre-treatment stages, which in some cases also need to be replaced, new limit values must be adhered to or the performance data no longer match the production capacity. With innovative offers – such as water-as-a-service – breweries with tight investment budgets can also use new technologies. The plant manufacturer is responsible for operating the plant – the operating costs are passed on to the user at a price per m² of water (Waterleau at Martens Brewery, presented at the EBC Congress, Lille 2024).

Packaging offers great optimisation potential for beverage manufacturers

Progress in reducing packaging materials remains modest. At least, that is what the figures in The Global Commitment Progress Report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2023 suggest. The share of reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging has not increased on a voluntary basis. According to the EMF report, major brand owners and retailers are struggling to reduce virgin plastics.

Models such as packaging-as-a-service, blockchain solutions for deposit systems or AI-supported concepts for resource-saving cleaning processes offer new prospects. Overall, the aim is to fully exploit the benefits of AI and machine learning in the field of packaging and thus develop new solutions.

In addition to product circularity, AI and data-based solutions also offer enormous potential for the lifecycle of production machines, in the raw materials cycle and in the recycling of residual materials.

Machine translated