The WateReuse Association has published a groundbreaking white paper titled “Advancing Water Reuse Within the Beverage Industry,” authored by GHD. This publication emerges from a collaborative effort involving WateReuse, PepsiCo, U.S. EPA, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the San Franciso Public Utilities Commission, among others, under the umbrella of the National Water Reuse Action Plan. The white paper explores stakeholder engagement, regulatory, treatment, and technology issues related to water reuse within the beverage industry, along with key hurdles and near, medium, and long-term solutions to advance water reuse practices at beverage manufacturing plants.
The team identifies five priority challenges, promising solutions, and tactics to enable greater water reuse at beverage manufacturing plants over near-, medium-, and long-term time horizons. Near-term tactics include developing a glossary of terms to improve communication within the beverage industry, and a flow chart of how to use the Hazard Assessment Critical Control Point framework, a risk assessment approach that informs regulatory decision-making for water reuse in beverage manufacturing. A medium-term tactic is to develop a technical guidance document to inform treatment and monitoring designs, abating some engineering challenges resulting from current regulatory gaps. In the long term, commissioning demonstration plants to test ideas and inform industry best practices can clarify important decision points and enable the uptake of water reuse systems at beverage manufacturing plants.
