'Please Enjoy Sustainably' will be printed in an eye-catching position on Tennents cans to encourage recycling | Credit:Tennents
Drinks brand to print a new message on its cans from 2022 in a bid to help boost recycling rates
The slogan 'drink sustainably' will sit alongside the reminder to 'drink responsibly' on a Tennents new beer cans, as the famous Scottish drinks brand seeks to boost recycling rates for its packaging.
Tennents announced during the COP26 Climate Summit last week that it will add the message 'Please Enjoy Sustainably' in a newly central position across all its canned packaging to help encourage active recycling of beer cans. The brewery said that recycling logos on cans are often missed owing to their size and position.
The new message will be printed on the roughly 120 million cans the brewery fills on average each year, with the new cans expected in store from January 2022.
"Being a responsible alcohol brand in 2021 means more than advocating moderate consumption - it means doing all you can to be environmentally positive too," said Cameron Matthews, Tennent's senior brand manager. "Within our business, we are committed to leading the way when it comes to sustainability - but there is a really important role for the public to play too. We wanted to use our reach to help keep the issue - and the ways that we can work together - front-of-mind."
Tennents aims to encourage recycling with its new on-label campaign ahead of the introduction of Scotland's deposit return scheme (DRS) for drinks containers. From July 2022 customers will have to pay a 20p deposit on single-use drinks containers that will be refunded when the empty bottle or can is returned for recycling.
The new sustainability messaging is the latest move in a string of environmental activity initiated by the Glasgow-based brewery. At the beginning of this year, Tennents pledged to remove single use plastic from its consumer packaging and invested £7m into equipment to introduce cardboard in place of plastic.
The company has delivered on £14m of environmental initiatives since 2019, including the changes to its packaging and the installation of an anaerobic digestion plant to treat wastewater on-site at Tennent's Wellpark brewery.
However, the move comes amidst reports Scotland's DRS could be delayed until 2023, with the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) claiming it had heard a second delay to the introduction of the scheme could be announced at Holyrood on Wednesday.
