VIDEO: Bacardi Redesigns Bottles to Increase Recycling

Hamilton, Bermuda based spirits manufacturer, Bacardi has made a number of its drinks bottles easier to recycle and reduced the amount of materials used at its Jacksonville, Florida, facility. The facility Bacardi’s rum through the final stages of blending before it is bottled and boxed for distribution across the U.S. As the sole bottling plant for Bacardi rum branded products enjoyed in the U.S., the company said that it recycles almost everything generated or used in the manufacturing process including: glass, plastic, aluminium, paper, and even wastewater. “Every single thing we do is to divert waste from landfills,” explained Jacksonville-based operations development manager, Jennifer Eckberg. As part of its ‘Good Spirited’ sustainability program, Bacardi said that it is aiming to eliminate landfill waste at all of its production sites globally by 2022. “Last year alone, this campus recycled enough office paper to fill a bus. That’s three tonnes of paper that never made it to a landfill,” continued Eckberg. “In addition, it is commonplace for Bacardi that a plastic bottle does not go in the trash – it goes into a specific recycle bin.” Those bins are never far away – so for Bacardi employees, living and working sustainably are part of the daily corporate culture. “We are very responsible corporate citizens,” explains Eckberg. As part of the program the company examined a number of its beverage containers, changing the length of the neck to make them easier to recycle and changing the materials used in others to PET, as well as reducing the overall amount of materials used in their product. A video explaining more about the project and how the company went about increasing the recyclability of its bottles, is included in this week’s WMW Weekly Newscast below. Read More Bacardi Gets into the Spirit of Recycling Demolition Waste . Bacardi has achieved zero waste to landfill on works to demolish six buildings at its rum distillery in Cataño, Puerto Rico, where it recycled 2300 tonnes of rubble. Remanufacturing Growth Potential to be Examined by UK Parliamentary Groups A call for evidence has been issued by a new Parliamentary inquiry examining the growth potential of the UK’s remanufacturing sector. Plastic Recycling to Open New Polystyrene Recycling Facility in Indianapolis Plastic Recycling is to open a recycling facility in the city dedicated to post-consumer foam cups, foam take-out containers and other used polystyrene materials collected through kerbside pick-up programs across the country.