2030 sustainability goals: Carlsberg and Ball outline a roadmap to increase recycled aluminium content in cans

Carlsberg, one of the world’s leading brewery groups, and Ball Corporation, the world’s leading aluminium packaging provider, have jointly outlined a roadmap to attain shared sustainability goals by 2030. 

Their sustainability goals include higher recycling rates and more recycled aluminium content in cans. 

In the recent past, Carlsberg and Ball worked together to lightweight the former’s 33cl and 50cl cans by around 5 per cent in more than ten European countries to reduce raw material consumption and cut the carbon footprint of its value chain by approximately 5,000 tonnes every year. 

Carlsberg and Ball are also trialling a deposit return scheme in Serbia to increase post-consumer aluminium cans recycling. The companies have printed “Metal Recycles Forever” onto the cans to spread awareness that aluminium is infinitely recyclable. 

Ball Corporation’s cans already contain an average of 62 per cent recycled aluminium. Driving more collection and recycling initiatives will result in easier and higher access to post-consumer recycled content, helping the companies achieve their sustainability goals. 

Johan Keerberg, VP of Group Procurement at Carlsberg, said: “Partnering with suppliers who share our values and commitment is key to reaching our ambitious targets on our journey Together Towards ZERO and Beyond.”

He added, “Our collaboration with Ball has already delivered notable improvements in lightweighting – a critical lever for decarbonization and materials use in our shared value chain. Now we’re going further through joint efforts to increase the circularity of our cans.”

VP Sustainability at Ball Corporation, Björn Kulmann, said: “We are pleased to continue to partner with Carlsberg and collaborate on our aligned goals including a 90% recycling rate by 2030. Carbon reduction across our value chains is a key focus and lightweighting our cans is one way we have achieved this with Carlsberg, resulting in significant carbon savings in 2023.”