Clubs, breweries do their bit to conserve environment

By Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia
05 June 2007

SINGAPORE: Party-goers guzzle hundreds of bottles of beer at Zouk Club each night.

And every week, over 6,000 bottles are collected for recycling.

Zouk also employs water saving measures and energy efficient lighting to cut utility costs by about 15 per cent.

And now the club is in talks with environmental groups to organise what it calls "green" activities.

"It involves theme parties which... revolve around everything green... something that we do every couple of months.

"We are hoping the next one will be very green, and beyond that we are also talking to some people about a possible pageant that involves people who are highly conscious of something right for the environment," said Tracy Phillips, Marketing Manager, Zouk.

The Ministry of Sound (MOS) is also making the right moves to conserve the environment.

It is hoping to reduce its utility bill by some 20 per cent by moderating the air-conditioning system.

"Perhaps [we’ll] work with CapitaLand on an arrangement where throughout the entire Cannery, including MOS... have the air conditioning turned down to a minimum level.

"Or maybe not have each and every single one of the air vents switched on in the afternoons and early evenings where some of these bars are still open," said Calvin Sio, Marketing Director, LifeBrandz Ltd.

MOS says more people (15 per cent) are also ordering bottled beers, cutting down on the need to wash glasses afterwards.

All the empty bottles end up in a bin centre before they are sent to Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) to be recycled.

Bottles and crates collected from across the island are stored at a holding area in the brewery where they are all set for a thorough cleaning.

A fully automated system separates the bottles from the crates and sends both to massive washers.

The bottles about to go into the washer have their labels removed.

They will also go through a bath filled with caustic soda to remove the aluminium foil on them.

Separately, there are also spray jets to wash the inside of the bottles.

This machine can process 18,000 bottles in an hour.

Once cleaned and inspected, the bottles are re-filled and re-labelled.

The Returnable Glass Line runs round the clock and occupies 25 per cent of the packaging hall.

APB says it recycles about 43 million bottles a year, and generates a savings of 10 cents on each of them. - CNA/yy