Recyclers: the key to glass recycling success in Mexico and the Dominican Republic

The circular economy presents a unique opportunity to close the glass recycling loop in Mexico and the Dominican Republic while integrating recyclers from brewing industry companies, which play a pivotal role.

In a bid to enhance the adoption of circular practices aimed at optimizing the volume and quality of post-consumer glass bottles, AB InBev and IDB Invest conducted the study “Recovering Glass: Success Story on Circularity in the Value Chain.” This study was undertaken as part of Grupo Modelo and Cervecería Nacional Dominicana’s (CND) initiatives, both entities being part of AB InBev, with the aim of ensuring that 100% of their packaging is either returnable or made from recycled material.

Glass is a crucial material for the beer industry. Grupo Modelo in Mexico recovers 96% of its returnable bottles, while in the Dominican Republic, CND, also part of AB InBev, the world’s largest beer group, recovers 90% of its bottles. However, the remaining waste of this material is not adequately processed locally.

In recent years, beverage companies have made substantial efforts to develop the recycling sector. Nonetheless, factors such as working conditions for recyclers, the low market cost of glass, insufficient education about its environmental impact, and the lack of effective waste management policies have hindered the establishment of a true circular economy in the glass chain.

The study highlights the need for consumer education to increase glass recycling rates, partnerships between packaging manufacturers and the recycling industry, and engagement with decision-makers to enhance company participation and improve regulations and collection infrastructure.

The report recommends recognizing the efforts of recyclers and bottlers within the glass value chain, promoting public awareness to boost glass recycling, forging alliances between the manufacturing and recycling sectors and policymakers, and increasing company involvement in waste management to enhance glass collection infrastructure.

Additionally, the study proposes the creation of Model Recyclers, a program aimed at fostering the growth of recyclers in the value chain to optimize the volume of recovered and recycled glass, thus bolstering the local economy. To date, Grupo Modelo has trained 80 recyclers in Mexico to empower them to safeguard the environment and improve their quality of life and that of their communities.

In the Dominican Republic, CND has established a network of over 300 recyclers, known as Botelleros/as, to recover glass bottles from waste and reintegrate them into the production cycle under a returnability scheme. Despite this progress, the company aims to assist recyclers in augmenting the quantity and quality of recovered bottles.

To advance a circular economy, Grupo Modelo has devised a glass management strategy with two fronts: the collection of glass bottles from consumers and consumption points, and the retrieval of glass bottles through recyclers. The brewery has recovered over 700 million bottles in the last three years.

Furthermore, the document provides a roadmap for replicating the circularity strategy for glass in other Latin American countries, outlining metrics and five lines of action: Alliances for Circularity, Value Chain Diagnosis, Capacity Building, Circularity Promotion and Growth Plan, and Sustainable Infrastructure.