Savouring Our Future - Bottle of Bread: surplus bread upcycled to craft beer

This pale ale not just upgrades surplus bread, but also the vision and determination to make good use of technology to reduce food waste.

BOB combines three elements of sustainability: surplus, recycling and young start-up.

From waste not and cherish food to upcycle with a purpose

Anushka Purohit, the co-founder of Breer, witnessed bread still edible being discarded when she was a child, and couldn’t help but think, “How much food do we waste everyday?” The seed of waste reduction has been planted for long, and eventually blossomed in her second year of university. Together with three like-minded classmates, she established a craft beer start-up team called Breer, to upcycle surplus bread.

Another co-founder, Deevansh Gupta, shared that beer and bread seem to be irrelevant to each other, yet they have something essentially in common. “Both contain barley malt, hops, and yeast. While the barley content in beer is generally 78%, it can be partly replaced by surplus bread, which significantly saves both the quantity of raw materials and production costs.” Gupta says.

“Cut the bread into small pieces, put them in hot water to extract barley, then mix with hops to ferment, that’s how you make delicious beer.” After solving technical problems, the next challenge was to find a supply of bread. At the initiation phase, the team could only contact small shops in various districts to ask them for surplus bread donation. Though not as smooth as expected, the process of persuasion has given Breer greater confidence. Despite the growth, this method has never been able to ensure a continuous and stable supply of surplus bread.

Customers can now enjoy BOB, the upcycled craft beer, at the Chinese, Western and Japanese restaurants under the Maxim’s Group.

Supporting local start-ups and sharing brand and marketing expertise

In early 2021, Maxim’s Group first learnt about Breer through a news article. “We have been carrying out waste reduction projects in different sectors. Breer’s upcycling concept is really in line with the Group’s foodwise vision. Thus, the Bottle of Bread (BOB) has been created. Maxim’s Group’s Food Procurement and Supply Chain Senior Manager Michael Shung said that BOB combines three elements of sustainability: surplus, recycling and young start-up.

BOB is a 5% alcohol pale ale, and each bottle contains 25 grams of dairy-free surplus bread supplied by Maxim’s Group. Breer believes that receiving support from Maxim’s Group is undoubtedly a winning factor in the upcycling journey. “In the past two years, it is estimated that we have ‘saved’ more than 8,000 kilograms of surplus bread ” says Anushka. In 2021, she was selected as the “Outstanding Youth of the Year” by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

In December 2021, for every BOB sold, Maxim’s Group donated HK$10 to Operation Santa Claus (Photo source: 2021 Operation Santa Claus).

Plant tree and reduce carbon emissions

Michael finally shared that the Group has always adhered to three concepts. First to carry out foodwise and waste reduction, second is to change public’s view on the regeneration and upcycling of surplus ingredients through innovative projects, and third is to integrate the spirit of “Cheers for a good cause”. In December 2021, for every BOB sold, Maxim’s Group donated HK$10 to Operation Santa Claus. From August this year onwards, for every 6 BOB sold, the Group will plant a tree to help carbon sequestration.

BOB not just “upgrades” surplus bread, but also the vision and determination to make good use of technology to reduce food waste.

More information: https://www.maxims.com.hk/bob.html

Maxim’s Branded Products uniforms are made with 100% sustainable fibre, upcycling 16 plastic bottles in each piece. Showcasing Maxim’s professionalism while advancing the sustainability agenda.

Curbing the use of plastic and virgin raw materials

Maxim's Branded Products unveiled a new uniform which debuted in Mainland China, Hong Kong, USA, Canada and Southeast Asia in 2023. The new shade of burgundy is produced entirely with Repreve, a sustainable material. With 7,000 shirts procured, the equivalence of upcycling over 110,000 plastic bottles, was part of our effort to bring a happy and green mid-autumn festival to our beloved planet and everyone living on it.

Apart from the Branded Products Department, other departments have also been gradually incorporating sustainable elements into their uniforms and utensils starting from 2021, slashing plastic usage along with the demand for virgin material, as a means to better utilize resources and contribute to the circular economy.

Repreve is a sustainable polyester made from recycled plastic bottles. Its production is less polluting and carbon intensive. Uniforms and tools used in commercial settings need to be extra durable since the frequent cleaning is necessary for maintaining good hygiene, which in turn renders them more prone to wear and tear. The material also has to be soft, comfortable on the body and suitable for multiple wears. Repreve is a perfect candidate that checks all the boxes.

To help dealers and colleagues better understand the intention behind it, labels and tags are attached to indicate 'upcycled from plastic bottles'.

The plastic-bottle-uniform goes global

Mr. Patrick So, Chief Operating Officer (Branded Products and FMCG, Cakes & Bakery (Mainland China)), believes sustainable uniform is a trend in the global community that aligns with Maxim’s values. The use of Repreve weaves together the spirit of sustainability and innovation, giving birth to comfortable uniforms that do not require ironing. Be it for colleagues working indoors or outdoors, they all feel refreshed and proud wearing these thoughtfully produced pieces.

"Sustainable uniforms are not just mere clothing items, it is also a pleasant gesture to our planet and contributes deeply to Maxim’s long term vision sustainability." says Mr. So.

Sustainable uniform serves as a testimony to Maxim’s commitment to sustainable development and an example for our dealers and partners

What does Maxim’s Branded Products team think?

It’s awesome!
Can’t believe it’s made of plastic bottles!

Vietnam Team

Everyone at the company strives
to be greener and less
carbon intensive.
Wearing it makes me proud!

Mainland China Team

It’s iron-free,
convenient and
makes us look sharp.

US Team

It feels like an usual uniform
but turns out it’s made
of green materials.

Hong Kong Team

Maxim’s Group also uses upcycled renewable materials or Repreve in:

The staff t-shirt at MX.

The Arome aprons at Arome Bakery.

The chef pants at Peking Garden.

The tablecloths at COVA.

The volunteer t-shirt for the Japanese restaurant team.

Coffee BOB catalyzes circular economy

According to the Environmental Protection Department, 3,255 tonnes of food waste are disposed at landfills every day, accounting for one third of total municipal solid waste in Hong Kong. In addition to taking up valuable landfill space, its decomposition process also brings odour nuisance and releases methane, a greenhouse gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide—the harm brought by food waste is much greater than what’s usually assumed.

About 30% of the waste disposed at landfills every day is food waste, which releases a greenhouse gas more destructive than carbon dioxide: methane. Taking that into consideration, upcycling food waste into new products not only creates value, but also eases global warming.

Rescuing 2.6 tonnes of surplus bread

In 2021, Maxim’s Group began to join hands with Breer, an award-winning local start-up founded by HKUST students, and launched the BOB (Bottle of Bread) label. The team replaces barley with surplus bread as an essential brewing ingredient, turning what would have been wasted into local craft beer. Over 2.6 tonnes of surplus bread have since been rescued.

Coffee grounds is one of the most common kinds of food waste produced by restaurants. Except for a tiny amount that is being recycled as a handicraft material, most of it is being thrown away to government food waste processing facilities or simply to landfills, like any other trash.

After months of testing and fine-tuning, Maxim’s Group successfully turned the grounds collected from its restaurants into a beer brewing ingredient, and launched “Coffee BOB”, the second BOB product. While the Original BOB pale ale has a delightful citrus note, the new beer is a stout with more robust flavors brought by coffee grounds added during the brewing process, with each bottle containing 4 grams of grounds. The intertwining dark chocolate notes and roasty flavors bring forth a delicate balance between sweetness and bitterness.

To ensure freshness and avoid exposure to humidity, sunlight, dust and germs, surplus breads would be sent to a cold room as soon as they are collected and be used in brewing the next day. Moreover, the high temperature produced during the brewing is enough to kill off any left-over germs, making sure every bottle is absolutely safe and tasty.

The Original BOB and the Coffee BOB contain 25 grams and 15 grams of surplus bread respectively, while the latter also contains 4 grams of coffee grounds. Barley is entirely replaced as a brewing ingredient.

“Buy Six Plant One”—let’s all take part in waste and carbon reduction

With the brilliant idea of “upcycling bread into beer”, BOB echoes with the Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by incorporating waste reduction and circular economy into people’s daily routine. The innovative products invite consumers to play a part in resource conservation and the endeavor to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C.

For every 6 bottles of BOB sold, Maxim’s Group will sponsor social enterprise EcoMatcher in helping tree farmers to plant one tree in Asia. The growth of these trees can be observed on corresponding website and smartphone application. In this sense, each BOB purchase is contributing to tree farmers and their communities.

Innovative ideas and practices of sustainable development are ingrained in every facet of life. Enterprises, start-ups and consumers should work hand in hand to create greener consumption habits that benefit our communities, the environment and the earth, and that is exactly what BOB does—it brings together different stakeholders with the common pursuit of a brighter future.

[Note 1]: EPD’s Food Waste Challenge https://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/tc_chi/environmentinhk/waste/prob_solutions/food_waste_challenge.html

Hong Kong Solid Waste Monitoring Report 2020 Statistics https://www.wastereduction.gov.hk/sites/default/files/msw2020tc.pdf

[Note 2]: UNEP Bread to beer: an unlikely sandwich cast-off https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/bread-beer-unlikely-sandwich-cast

More information: https://www.maxims.com.hk/bob.html

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