Diageo has announced that it has provided funding to establish a plant to roll hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aluminium sheet in the UK, more than enough for over 400 million cans of Guinness and pre-mixed Gordon’s and tonic.

Currently, to recycle and remake cans, the UK is reliant on an energy-intensive supply chain that is based on the unsustainable exporting and importing of aluminium, but the recycling and manufacturing plant will keep the recycling of aluminium in the UK and cement the UK’s position as a leader in the adoption of carbon reduction and manufacturing.

Diageo has been working with the British Aluminium Consortium for Advanced Alloys (BACALL) since 2021 when Diageo jointly funded a feasibility study with the Government (via Innovate UK) into whether and how a large-scale circular economy strategy could be adopted across the aluminium sector tailored to the UK.

Ewan Andrew, global supply chain and procurement and chief sustainability officer at Diageo, commented: “We are excited to be a part of a project that will ultimately change the production of aluminium in the UK. We are now seeking to work in partnership with business and Government to not only reduce aluminium’s carbon footprint, but also to bring this part of the aluminium supply chain back to the UK.”

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