The Business and Minerals Committee (Inuussutissarsiornermut Atsitassanullu Ataatsimiititaliaq) at The Government of Greenland (Inatsisartut) is supporting a proposal to make the import of alcohol-free beer in aluminium cans legal.

Alcohol-free beer has several health benefits compared to beer with alcohol. So making alcohol-free beer available is a good idea.

Unfortunately, the deposit scheme on beverage containers in Greenland only cover glass and plastic bottles (as seen in our previous post from the Nuuk Culture Night). It doesn’t cover aluminium cans. This means there is no incentive for people to dispose of the cans in a environment-friendly way.

The committee addresses this by saying there are already energy drinks in aluminium cans available in greenlandic stores, and “The number of visible aluminum cans in the city seems to be quite limited” (Quote from a May 2019 KNR article).

Unfortunately, this is not true. Maybe the members of the committee doesn’t walk or bicycle around Nuuk - maybe they only drive around in cars so they don’t see how polluted by trash the town of Nuuk actually is.

A quick walk from the town center to the Nuussuaq neighborhood and around the airport gave a total of 42 discarded energy drinks in aluminium cans - as seen in these pictures that we took:

In Denmark - where the alcohol-free beer will be imported from - there already is a deposit on every type of beverage aluminium can. The Danish deposit scheme will be even further expanded this year by including juice and other non-carbonated drinks regardless of the container.

Greenland’s deposit scheme needs to also be expanded.