Carlsberg to ditch plastic rings, glues beer cans together instead

Carlsberg glues beer cans together becoming first brewery to abandon plastic rings. Photo / Handout

Carlsberg beer cans are to be stuck together with glue as it becomes the first brewer to abandon plastic rings.

The Danish firm said the move, which has been heralded as a world-first, to attach its multi-packs with adhesive will reduce the use of plastic to package products by 75 per cent, according to the Daily Telegraph.

After a three-year development process, Carlsberg insists the dots of glue bonding its new "Snap Packs" are strong enough to withstand journeys from shelves to homes, yet sufficiently brittle to break when twisted.

The eco-friendly packaging innovation will be debuted in the UK, where 30 per cent of Carlsberg's beer output is drunk every year.

At an official launch event in Copenhagen, inventor Christopher Stuhlmann revealed how a trip to his local DIY store helped convince him that his brainwave could become a reality.

"The starting point was going to a hardware shop and buying all the adhesive I could get, all the glue that was there," said Stuhlmann, who works for one of Carlsberg's design partners.

"Over the weekend I just glued things together and made a short video for my CEO and so the idea was born."

The technology has the support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which has hailed it as a "big step" in efforts to tackle the worsening global scourge of plastic pollution.

To mark the launch, the brewery unveiled a replica of Copenhagen's famous Little Mermaid statue - an artwork originally donated by Carlsberg's founders, the Jacobsen family - made from the new Snap Packs.

Head of sustainability at Carlsberg, Simon Boas Hoffmeyer, said once the Snap Packs are rolled out worldwide the company will reduce its plastic use by 1,200 tonnes a year - the equivalent of 60 million plastic bags.

"It's a little bit of magic," he said of the design.

"It's glued together so you can't actually see the packaging. It's almost not there, and that is what is extremely exciting from a sustainability perspective."

Carlsberg's vice president of product development, Myriam Shingleton, said she wanted the glue to become the new packaging norm.

"It's a global problem and we are very happy we are at the front end to propose that," she said.

"As always in Carlsberg we will not keep this for ourselves.

"I'm sure other players will follow when they see that - and that's a very exciting journey if more and more players are coming."