Use beer to make a beer tap. Mahou He has just presented at the Hospitality Innovation Planet (Hip) Fair that IFEMA hosts these days, a Beer tap made with beer. Its manufacture combines the bagasse, a byproduct generated after pressing the cereal and filtering the must, with Pla, a biocomposable polymer extracted from the cornstake, beet or wheat.
After obtaining this recyclable mixture, a housing has been shaped to cover the metal structure of the tap. For this the brand has applied 3D technology and ha counted on the collaboration of Lowpoly, Company specialized in digital manufacturing design. The result is a sustainable and aesthetic design that is committed to colorful ways for the point of attention at the point of sale.
“The disruptive of this solution is not only the result, but the process: we have created a chain of use that directly connects our beer production with tangible solutions, seeking that each element has a purpose beyond its initial function”, Explains Benet Fité, quality director, R&D and Environment of Mahou San Miguel. “Thus we make a differential contribution, not only to our business, but to our entire value chain.
The company ensures that it is the first beer tap in Spain manufactured from a byproduct of the process of making the beer itself. The action involves an exercise in reuse, innovation and design by the brand; and has been devised by the internal team of the firm.
This project is another sample of the efforts of Mahou San Miguel for looking for solutions to Take advantage of the bagasse of which produces more than 190,000 tons per year. The company has initiatives in this line, and has worked to transform the product into flour for the food industry, edible cutlery and paper for sustainable labels.
Hospitality Innovation Planet attendees have been the first to be able to observe first -hand this new tap, but Mahou’s ambition would be a distribution to its entire commercial network in Spain. This would imply making it reach almost 150,000 facilities which currently maintains in the national territory. At the moment it has not detailed deadlines or agreements in this regard.
The initiative is aligned with the company’s sustainability efforts. Under the strategic framework “Come on 2030”Mahou has undertake different innovations oriented to the use of natural resources and the protection of biodiversity. For example, as reflected on their website, all its factories are already zero residue, with 99.9% of the resources reused in other processes.
In addition, it is substituting the plastic of rings and retractable wraps of the cans by biodegradable cardboard, and maintains a recycling program with the hospitality industry, by which all the marketed containers return used to the factories to reuse.
