5 4 Wastewater produced by the European
production units
At present 18 of the 42 European production units (breweries, malting plants and soft
drinks factories) have an on-site wastewater treatment plant. Five production facili
ties make use of an on-site anaerobic pre-treatment system (4 anaerobic plants and
1 aerobic plant), followed by an external post-treatment. At 13 locations the waste
water is discharged to surface water after treatment. In 10 cases this involves aerobic
plants; in 3 cases the water is treated by anaerobic and aerobic plants. At the remain
ing production units (24) wastewater treatment is carried out by a third party.
5.4.1 COD and suspended matter in the breweries' wastewater
We inspect the quality of the wastewater by carefully monitoring the quality and com
paring the results of our measurements with pre-set indicators. The COD parameter is
used as the measure for the organic pollution of our wastewater. The quantity of was
tewater and the pollution load are largely determined by the individual breweries.
The total COD of the 42 production units before treatment amounts to 63.4 thousand
tonnes, of which 39 thousand tonnes are treated in our own treatment plants.
The pre-treatment COD efficiency is 60-80%. The aerobic and combined
anaerobic and aerobic systems have a COD efficiency of around 97%. The final
amount of COD discharged by the latter systems was 680 tonnes.
The treated wastewater also contains small amounts of suspended matter. A total of
385 tonnes was discharged into the surface water.
The specific COD (KgCOD/hl) of the wastewater prior to treatment is an indica
tion of good housekeeping within our breweries. Since 1997 the specific COD has
remained more or less stable.
Total COD before treatment all production units
kg COD/year 0 20,000,000 40,000,000 60,000,000 80,000,000
1999 63,442,130
1998
1997
HEINEKEN ENVIRONMENT REPORT 1998-1999