Hindalco Industries Ltd, Ball Beverage Packaging (India) Pvt Ltd and Can-Pack India Pvt Ltd are launching a consortium called Aluminium Beverages Can Association of India (ABCAI) with the aim of increasing the use of aluminium cans to pack beverages.

ABCAI intends to partner with governments, corporates, trade bodies and consumers to spread awareness on the economic and environmental benefits of aluminium beverage packaging. It will commission studies to showcase the benefits of such beverage cans in logistics, refrigeration, water and power conservation.

Awareness gap

Prakash Nedungadi, Group Head, Consumer Insights & Brand Development, Aditya Birla Group, said aluminium plays a key role in the burgeoning packaging industry in India and that the consortium sees a need to bridge the awareness gap. “We aim to convert one in every four beverage packages in India to aluminium by 2030,” he said.

At just one, India’s annual per capita consumption of cans is a far cry from countries such as Brazil (97), China (39), the US (288) and Vietnam (70). Currently, aluminium constitutes about 5 per cent of beverage packaging in India. The number of beverage packages consumed in India is expected to reach 50 billion a year by 2030 from the current 20 billion.

Global benchmarks

“Looking at the global benchmarks — 70 or 40 cans per capita versus our one — there obviously is an opportunity to grow. Therefore, when we say we want to go from one can to eight cans per capita over the next 11-12 years, we think it’s a reasonable goal, which we should all work towards. Then we can then see whether we want to raise that further,” Nedungadi told BusinessLine .

He pointed out that aluminium packaging is eco-friendly, offers faster cooling and logistical efficiency, and is tamper-proof and easy to carry and dispose. Aluminium is also infinitely recyclable, he added.

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