THE OTHER BUSINESS OF THE BREWERS HEINEKEN MEXICO CANS MORE THAN 4.5 MILLION BOTTLES OF WATER

The beer industry is one of the most important in the Aztec country and this is demonstrated by the figures, as Mexico ranks fourth in the world as a producer of this drink and the first in exports. However, up to three litres of water are used for every litre of beer, and brewers know that this is not something to brag about.

Since 2015, the brewery Heineken has canned drinking water at its plant in Orizaba, Veracruz, to support emergency situations throughout the country. Specifically, it cans more than 4.5 million containers of drinking water per year.

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Since the beginning of the pandemic by COVID-19 to date, the company has donated about 790 thousand cans of water in 30 states of the Republic to supply vaccination centers and support front-line health personnel. Previously, it also donated this input to populations affected by natural disasters, such as in Oaxaca and Mexico City during the 2017 earthquake.

The brewery is also working on different projects around the world and in Mexico. Its Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma-Heineken plant in Orizaba has achieved the use of 2.65 liters of water for each liter of beer, making it the most efficient of the group’s eight factories in Mexico.

The Orizaba plant has four boilers with treated water whose steam is reused to drive turbines for cooking or bottling. In the pasteurization, equipment cleaning or sterilization processes, among others, the water condensate is recovered.

Zacatecas has different plants and systems that allow us to treat water and reduce its first use demand by 48 to 50%. The brewery has invested 3.3 million dollars in ultra-filtration and reverse osmosis systems, with which it obtains treated wastewater.

One strategy is to lower the volume of water used to produce each litre of beer. Now, the company uses 2.6 liters and the goal for next year is to reach 2.5 liters. At the Meoqui plant in Chihuahua, it is possible to reduce the amount of water used in each litre of beer to 2 litres.

The company also works with farmers to reduce water waste through irrigation techniques. In Zacatecas, it has allowed them to reduce irrigation from 8,000 to 9,000 cubic meters per hectare to only 3.5 to 5,000 m3.

In the last 6 years, the brewery has managed to produce more than 4 million cans of water and in 2021, the brewery continues to strengthen its solidarity actions and as part of its #PorMéxicoPorTodos program, will produce 500 thousand more cans, which will continue to be destined to communities with limited access to this resource, affected by natural disasters or by the current health contingency.