In summer 2020, Spain’s Mahou San Miguel began to produce its first plastic-free packaging as part of its plan to save 90 tonnes of plastic per year. The scheme replaces the rings around the beer can packs with biodegradable cardboard. Mahou San Miguel is also eliminating the plastic shrink-wrap on its merchandise, replacing it with biodegradable cardboard boxes from sustainable forests.

Mahou San Miguel is currently adapting the production process at its Burgos factory, where it installed an industrial machine prepared to replace plastic with cardboard in the packaging process. This measure is part of a commitment to switch all its packaging and promotional materials to recycled and recyclable components.

Mahou San Miguel has removed 6,700 tonnes of material from its process since 2017 thanks to its eco-design initiatives. It has also lowered its consumption of virgin plastic by 17,400 tonnes, thus cutting emissions by more than 50,000 tonnes of CO2 – or the equivalent CO2 absorption of more than three million trees in one year.

Mahou San Miguel will continue to reduce the environmental impact of its packaging while ensuring the quality and safety of its products. The company aims to promote circularity across the business by 2030: circularity of all packaging and materials, eliminating the use of virgin plastic and ensuring that they are 100% recyclable and/or reusable.

 

To date, all our packaging is 100% recyclable, while 84% of the packaging we sell in hospitality venues is reusable.