Lion to shrink its plastic usage on beer packaging

Australasian brewer Lion has announced that it will reduce the two largest sources of plastic in its packaging — plastic shrink-wrap and plastic labels on beer bottles. This plan is set to remove more than 630 tonnes of plastic from circulation each year and cut Lion’s plastic use in the market by more than half. For the XXXX brand alone, removing shrink-wrap will reduce its total plastic use by 70% by 2023.

Lion’s Head of Sustainability Libby Davidson said that Lion’s first step would be to remove plastic shrink-wrap from its beer packaging within the next two years, meaning the plastic shrink-wrap currently found on sixpacks of cans and bottles for brands such as XXXX, Tooheys and James Boag’s would be eliminated completely by the end of 2023.

The second step is to transition away from plastic labels on beer bottles and replace these with sustainable alternatives such as biodegradable labels or paper alternatives by the end of the decade.

“Lion has been a pioneer in sustainable packaging. We were the first major Australian brewer to stop using plastic rings in sixpacks, and we’re already closing in on a goal of 100% recyclable plastic packaging and 50% recycled content,” Davidson said.

“But we can go further, and we’ve identified an opportunity here to address two significant sources of plastic in our supply chain.”

Over the next 12 months Lion will work with packaging suppliers to confirm alternatives to shrink-wrap for all product lines by the end of 2023.

The use of shrink-wrap around sixpacks of cans, as an example, will cease completely by the end of this year, with stubbies and long necks to follow.