AB InBev Wins Gartner’s 2025 Supply Chain Innovation Award for Excellence in Customer and Patient Solutions
The company won the award for its innovative Green Mining initiative, setting new standards in waste management and sustainability.
Brazil has long faced challenges in waste management, with recycling systems struggling to keep pace with the country’s growing consumption. Municipal programmes currently recycle only 2% of waste, leaving vast amounts of reusable materials to clog landfills and pollute the environment. This inefficiency has resulted in overflowing disposal sites, rising pollution levels, and severe ecological damage, particularly in urban areas where waste generation is highest.
Compounding this issue is the informal waste sector, which plays a crucial role in recycling but lacks proper infrastructure, support, and recognition. Thousands of marginalised workers, known as waste pickers, collect and sell recyclable materials to sustain their livelihoods. However, without an organised system, most postconsumer glass, plastics, and metals remain unrecovered, further limiting recycling rates and worsening the country’s waste crisis.
One of the biggest contributors to this challenge is the hospitality sector, including bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues, which generate large volumes of discarded glass bottles. With no streamlined collection process, much of this glass is thrown away instead of being repurposed. Companies like AB InBev, which rely heavily on sustainable packaging, found it difficult to recover these materials efficiently, creating a roadblock to their goal of making 100% of their packaging returnable or recyclable by 2025.
To tackle these problems, AB InBev launched the Green Mining initiative, a ground breaking solution designed to revolutionise waste collection, enhance sustainability, and drive social impact.
How Green Mining is Redefining Recycling
At the heart of Green Mining is intelligent reverse logistics software that leverages sales data and blockchain technology to optimize waste collection. By mapping out high-waste areas and creating a transparent, traceable supply chain, the initiative ensures that postconsumer packaging is efficiently recovered and reintegrated into the production cycle.
AB InBev’s approach transforms waste management into an integrated, customer-driven process, allowing businesses to contribute to sustainability efforts while improving customer retention. Additionally, Green Mining prioritises social responsibility, offering stable and dignified jobs to former waste pickers—a group that has historically worked under unsafe and exploitative conditions.
Through Green Mining, AB InBev is reshaping Brazil’s recycling landscape, proving that sustainability, innovation, and social impact can work together to create a more circular economy.
Key Benefits of the Green Mining Initiative
According to Gartner’s report, the Green Mining pilot, launched in 2018, has successfully met its key performance indicators (KPIs) by reducing operational costs, ensuring compliance with Brazil’s environmental regulations, and creating employment opportunities for former waste pickers. The programme has achieved a remarkable 75% recycling rate, recovered over 2 million kilograms of glass bottles for reuse, and prevented 330,000 kilograms of CO2 emissions, demonstrating its significant environmental and social impact.
