Multinational Rio Tinto announced, in partnership with Corona Canada, the launch of Canada’s first specially marked low carbon beverage can, manufactured by Ball Corporation. The cans, now available through a pilot in Ontario, were manufactured using Rio Tinto aluminum and leveraging ELYSISTM technology.
A total of 1.2 million cans with the QR code were produced as part of this limited launch, with the added goal of inspiring consumers to learn more about the low carbon footprint of cans.
In this regard, Corona Canada’s vice president of marketing, Andrew Oosterhuis, noted that “by continuing to introduce market-leading technologies in the beverage space, we are leading by example for other companies and their suppliers to innovate and drive meaningful change for our environment.”
For his part, Rio Tinto’s Sales and Marketing Director, Tolga Egrilmezer, added that “these specially marked, low-carbon beverage cans will showcase the responsibly produced aluminum that Rio Tinto offers, bringing together renewable hydroelectric power and the innovation of zero-carbon ELYSISTM smelting technology.”
This initiative is another step towards making a beverage can fully traceable all the way to the consumer’s hands. Also, in the future, Rio Tinto will leverage the insights from its START initiative to enable consumers to use QR codes to see exactly how its products were made from mine to market.
Today, about 70 percent of the aluminum used in cans produced in North America is made from recycled aluminum. However, combining this recycled metal with Rio Tinto’s low-carbon aluminum, made from renewable hydroelectric power, and metal produced using ELYSISTM smelting technology with no direct greenhouse gas emissions reduces carbon emissions by more than 30 percent.
