This case study is a financially, economically, environmentally, and socially successful industry example of in-house water recycling undertaken by a local brewery in Yatala, Queensland. 

In Yatala, Queensland, Australia, the local wastewater treatment plant has optimally sought to deliver a residential load for 30, 000 – 40, 000 people. However, in 2005, the decision of Yatala’s Carlton United Breweries (CUB) to double its production which was approximately equivalent to the biological load of around 60,000 more people implicated various post-expansion problems. Specifically, CUB’s post-expansion wastewater effluent was found to be in excess of what the local municipal plant could cope with. Compounding the local municipality's inability to treat high strength and volume industrial trade waste was the Millennium Drought of 2002-2008 where businesses, such as the brewery, started to face severe water restrictions and closure of their branches in other parts of the country.

Persuasive drought and the local municipality's inability to treat high strength and volume industrial trade waste was anticipated to incur high costs for CUB. However, the brewery got in contact with the municipality to evaluate which possibilities existed to support the brewery’s wastewater treatment. The brewery in Yatala made the bold choice to first install an on-site wastewater treatment, and later, a recycling plant. This installation avoided the increased cost of water, wastewater disposal, and installation of headworks, offsetting the bulk of the expense of building the new facility (the plant estimated $6.5 million but it saved the brewery $5.7 million in headworks charges). This ongoing site also granted them full autonomy, especially in a time of increasing water resource restrictions. By eliminating the need for transport of wastewater before processing, the on-site plant minimised the greenhouse gas emissions, while providing the ability to treat feed water for quality control purposes.  

Other similar business cases exist, such as the circular strategy implemented in Glasgow, where wasted bread is used in the beer brewing process.

The installation of the plant has led to unprecedented growth for the brewery, while optimising its resource, by halving its water requirements per litre of the product (2.3 litres of water per litre of product, instead of 5.5 litres).

Photo by Timothy Hales Bennett on Unsplash