Over one billion reusable beer and other glass bottles may soon need to be destroyed in Belgium, Het Laatste Nieuws reports.
The Belgian Brewers' Association says that the EU's new regulation on packaging and packing waste would force brewers to destroy bottles as part of harmonisation rules. The new regulation aims to reduce packaging materials and increase reusable packaging in the market.
The bottles would need to be destroyed because, under the future legislation, all packaging must include an "indelible code" to trace the recycling of packaging materials. The existing bottle deposit labels will no longer be sufficient, explained Krishan Maudgal, spokesperson for the Association.
'Economically and ecologically incomprehensible'
The glass bottles will therefore need to be destroyed and remade with the code. Belgium may need to destroy up to 1.1 billion but would not be the only country affected: Germany may also need to destroy around one billion bottles. This would include all beer bottles and others included in the bottle deposit scheme.
"We fully support the sustainability idea, but I hope that we do not go down this path," the spokesperson said. "[Destroying the bottles] would be economically and ecologically incomprehensible."
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Numerous European countries already have an effective bottle deposit scheme in place. This allows beer bottles to be returned, cleaned and reused up to 30 times, making the beer and beverage industry more sustainable and reducing the need for new packaging.
The Brewers' Association hopes that the European Commission will not force companies to destroy the existing bottles. "We assume that reason will prevail… but if it does not, we will have a big problem," they said. The new regulations would also extend to beer crates, which would also have to be remade.
