Brewing giant Tennent's to invest £14m in green initiatives

Scottish drinks giant Tennent's has said it plans to invest £14m in environmental initiatives.

From next Spring, cans of the lager - made at the Wellpark brewery in Glasgow - will be packaged in cardboard rather than the traditional plastic rings.

Shrink-wrap will also be phased out, and new equipment will aim to make the production process more sustainable.

The firm has pledged to eradicate single-use plastics by 2021 and stop using all plastics by 2025.

It has also committed to become carbon neutral by 2025.

A newly-built water treatment plant - which uses anaerobic digestion - is now operational at Wellpark.

This allows for the on-site treatment of waste water generated as a by-product of brewing.

The new anaerobic digestion plant at Wellpark reduces energy drawn from the National Grid

The facility also generates bio-gas, which is used to help heat the brewery.

Plans are also being made to ensure that all of the brewery's energy will come from renewable sources by 2025.

Tennent's said it was the first brewer to join the UK Plastics Pact, which aims to rethink the design and use of products to cut down on the use of plastic.

A new carbon-capture facility is also planned at Wellpark which, it is claimed, will save the equivalent CO2 emissions of 27,000 flights from Glasgow to London each year.

'The right direction'

The beer's by-products are already entirely recycled for use as animal feed or organic compost, meaning Wellpark has sent zero waste to landfill since 2014.

Martin Doogan, group engineering manager at Tennent's parent company C&C, said the company was acting "decisively" against climate change.

He added: "It's a leap in the right direction - but we're not complacent and we're not finished. We will continue to seek out ways to minimise our environmental impact across our entire business, from our transport fleet, to international deliveries.

"Our commitment is to lasting environmental change; in our company, in our industry and beyond."