Updated on 2. November 2026
Guest article: documenting reusable packaging in the brewing and beverage industry, by Christian Gradt, PRECOGIT GmbH
New obligations for kegs, bottles and crates
With the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), the requirements placed on companies along the entire supply chain in the brewing and beverage industry are rising. Breweries in particular, which rely on reusable kegs, returnable bottles and beverage crates, will in future have to do more than manage their stocks efficiently: they will also have to document their use and reuse transparently. The PPWR is intended to reduce packaging waste, strengthen the circular economy and promote the reuse of packaging.
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Summary:
A closer look at the German reuse system
The German reuse system is regarded as a model across Europe. The industry is therefore following the new requirements from Brussels closely. Dirk Reinsberg, Managing Director of the German Beverage Wholesalers’ Association, underlines the importance of existing reuse structures:
“Protecting the German reuse system is our highest priority, and with it maintaining a functioning, exemplary system that is a prime example of efficiency and sustainability.”
Dirk Reinsberg, BV GFGH (Source: Meininger)
For breweries, however, this means having to document their reuse processes even more precisely in the near future. The PPWR raises the requirements for transparency, traceability and documentation.
The regulation places greater emphasis on measurable reuse and traceable packaging cycles. In future, companies will have to be able to show which reusable packaging is in circulation, how often it is reused and what return rates are achieved.
In day-to-day practice in the brewing and beverage industry, this concerns:
Stocks
of kegs, bottles and crates
Deposit and empties movements
between brewery, retail and warehouse
Returns
from retail and hospitality
Shrinkage
and loss quantities
Documentation
for audits and authorities
Mapping empties in the ERP system
Manual processes quickly reach their limits. Many breweries already work with digital solutions for managing empties and deposit accounts. In the context of the PPWR, these systems become an important building block of the compliance strategy. It is therefore worth considering whether this building block can be mapped in a central ERP system such as SAP.
Kegs, returnable bottles, crates and pallets can be managed in SAP as materials in their own right. Until now this involved considerable effort and offered little commercial benefit. To meet the new PPWR requirements, all goods movements, returns and transfers now have to be recorded and archived systematically. At first glance this looks like a great deal of setup work. Through digital stock management, however, breweries gain an up-to-date overview of:
The resulting data does not only help with operational control; it also serves as a reliable basis for regulatory documentation. Beyond that, it can be used to support or automate decisions, for example in the procurement process. In the recently completed research project „BeverGreen“, the consortium — with the involvement of PRECOGIT — was already able to demonstrate initial implementation options in the field of empties logistics and the digital product passport.
Key figures, data quality and a sense of proportion
The PPWR makes it clear that sustainable packaging systems will in future be assessed more strongly on the basis of key figures. Companies that can map and analyze their reuse processes digitally have a clear advantage here. That includes preparing the necessary data, achieving a standardized level of data quality and making the data transparent for all stakeholders in the supply chain.
At the same time, care must be taken that functioning systems such as the German reuse system are not burdened with unnecessary bureaucracy. Additional rules must not jeopardize the goal of waste prevention; they must support existing structures sensibly.
Conclusion: reuse needs transparency
The PPWR makes reuse an even more important part of sustainable and legally compliant beverage marketing. For breweries, it will be decisive in future not only to manage stocks of empties, but also to document their use in a traceable way. Modern ERP systems such as SAP create the transparency required. They supply the data basis for meeting regulatory requirements reliably and for creating real added value for the material flow in the supply chain.
About the author: Christian Gradt
Managing Director of PRECOGIT GmbH, SAP specialist for SAP WM and SAP EWM in the brewing and beverage industry.
identpro’s perspective
Reliable data on empties starts in the warehouse
This section is an addition by the identpro editorial team and is not part of the guest article.
The PPWR calls for traceable figures on stocks, returns and circulation of reusable packaging. These figures come together in the ERP system, for example in SAP EWM. How reliable they are, however, is decided earlier: in the warehouse. That is where empties are delivered, set down, moved and fed back to the filling line. Where this is booked by hand with handheld scanners, gaps and incorrect postings arise. Those errors then sit in every analysis and every piece of documentation.
This is exactly where identpro comes in. Our Warehouse Execution System (WES) (WES) records the movements of empty and full goods automatically and in real time. LiDAR sensors on the forklifts detect where a load carrier is picked up and where it is set down. Staff do not have to scan anything. The data goes straight into the ERP system through interfaces. The result is a digital twin of the warehouse that shows the locations and quantities of pallets, crates and kegs, up to date at any time.
International success stories in the brewing industry
Breweries in several European countries already use the identpro solution, in some cases across multiple sites.
Warsteiner: recording empties in four clicks
At Warsteiner, 36 forklifts at the Warstein and Paderborn sites run with the identpro Warehouse Execution System, tracking 280,000 m² and 70,000 m². The connection to SAP EWM provides full transparency over full and empty containers. There is a dedicated terminal app for empties: the forklift driver records a pallet of empties in four clicks, without a scanner and without getting off the forklift.
Pilsner Urquell (Asahi): keeping track of empty kegs and bottles
At Pilsner Urquell, part of the Asahi Group, the existing forklifts were fitted with IoT kits. Automatic detection was added at the conveyors of the filling station. The system tracks full and empty kegs as well as bottles in real time and passes the stock figures straight to the ERP system. Manual scanning in the warehouse is no longer needed. Pilsner Urquell plans to roll the solution out to further Asahi Group sites.
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