Water & Waste

Water

Ball Packaging Europe consumed 1.4 million cubic metres of water in 2009, a 4 percent decrease from 2007. Water consumption per 1,000 cans produced decreased 10 percent in the same time frame and 28 percent between 2003 and 2009. Our goal is to further reduce water consumption by 4.9 percent per 1,000 cans produced by the end of 2011.

Chart: Water consumption per 1,000 cans produced

We installed measuring devices on the main water consuming equipment in the course of 2008 and 2009 and connected these devices to the Energy Information System (EIS). Through advanced metering systems and software, real-time data on our water demand is available and can be analysed in detail. Thus we can implement specific measures to further reduce our water consumption. We modified our cascade washing process and are now re-using water in La Ciotat, France. We save approximately 15,000 cubic metres of municipal water per year and reduce the amount of waste water released to treatment systems. We plan to implement this measure in five more European plants in 2010, resulting in annual water savings of more than 75,000 cubic metres.

Waste

Material use and waste volumes are important yardsticks for evaluating the efficiency of our processes. We employ a number of strategies to minimise raw material use, such as recycling all process scrap within our facilities and making process improvements to reduce spoilage.

Chart: Waste generation 2009