One of Prazdroj's strategic objectives is that the consumer packaging of all its products should be reusable or recyclable and at least half made from recycled material. The company will meet this goal this year, seven years ahead of schedule. The key shift is in cans.

Slovakia's deposit system is the first in Europe to offer beverage producers the opportunity to buy back collected cans for recycling into new cans. Prazdroj has thus symbolically closed their cycle. Since the new year, it has increased the recycling content of the body of all its cans for the Slovak market to 75%, and it is the first to cover all recycled content with material collected through the deposit system. In addition, the higher proportion of recycled aluminium will guarantee a 39% reduction in the carbon footprint of the cans per year.

In addition to the savings in raw material, the energy consumption of cans made from recycled material compared to cans made from virgin material is crucial in their production. A can made entirely from recycled material has up to 80% lower carbon footprint compared to a can made from virgin material and requires only 5% less energy to produce compared to a can made from virgin material. In addition, aluminium can be recycled virtually indefinitely, with no impact on its quality.

An important representative of our cans with a high recycled content on the Czech market is the Pilsner Urquell can, which is made from material containing 75% recycled components. The essence of this success is the cooperation with the manufacturer and supplier of the cans, who provides us with exceptionally certified material of these parameters.

More can always be done

The company has already taken a partial step towards full circularity of packaging by announcing a move away from PET beer bottles in 2019 and is taking further steps in this area. In terms of packaged beer, the most environmentally friendly packaging is still returnable glass, which Prazdroj turns over up to 26 times on average, with an average return rate of 98%. Cans, which are 97% aluminium, are now significantly closer to this thanks to backup.

In the area of secondary packaging, we can confirm that the packaging film for cans is made from 100% recycled plastic, and the recycled content of corrugated cardboard packaging is 95%.

Contact

Martina Vajskebrová

Plzeňský Prazdroj,a.s.

Material manager CZ, SK