In a partnership with WestRock and Grupo Gondi, Grupo Modelo is investing roughly $4 million in the sustainable, fiber-based CanCollar Eco solution in Quintana Roo, a Mexican state on the Yucatan Peninsula. The goal is to help advance the beer company’s sustainability goals by eliminating its use of plastic rings in Mexico.

Grupo Modelo is the first company in the Americas to adopt the recyclable CanCollar Eco technology, which will replace hard-to-recycle plastic packaging and therefore, reduce plastic waste. This solution will result in sustainability gains; specifically, it will enable the elimination of plastic rings on all cans sold in Quintana Roo.

Unlike a cardboard box that completely covers the product, CanCollar Eco uses only a paperboard clip to hold the upper part of the cans, making possible the goal of removing approximately 12 million plastic rings per year from the market.