Facts
- Country: France
- Focus:
- Reduce: Reduce waste water & energy consumption
- Reuse: Reuse local water: waste water can be collected, purified and reused as toilet flush water.
Summary of the project
Focus on one of the winning projects: Happy Drêche
Happy Drêche is an association whose objective is to recover the stillage (“drêche” in French) from brewers located across the city of Lille.
Context
Stillage is a by-product from brewing, which is often not recovered by brewers located in urban areas. The production of 1000 litres of beer generates 300 kg of stillage, whose management falls upon the breweries at a cost of 4000 to 5000€/year.
Description of the process
Happy Drêche collects the stillage free of charge and recycles it. Happy Drêche collects between 50 and 80 kg of stillage during each collection round, dries it in a dehydrator and adds fruits and vegetables which have either been recovered from retailers (non-compliant with retailer requirements, old) or from local producers. The mix is then processed for the production of breakfast products or appetizer snacks.
Results
Over the first 6 months of 2021, Happy Drêche collected and recovered 1 tonne of stillage, which represents approximately 700 kg of final food products.
Financing
Happy Drêche participated in the 2nd edition of MEL Makers and raised 6 585 € from 135 contributors (considering an initial target of 5 000 €). In exchange, the crowdfunding contributors received some of the products made by Happy Drêche and participated in guided tours of breweries.
Following this call for projects, Happy Drêche also benefitted from financial support from the MEL through another scheme: a call for social economy projects.
In the future
In the short term, Happy Drêche is planning on creating a commercial entity to manage its production and sales activities, alongside the association. Initially, Happy Drêche’s products were to be sold at the local brewers who supplied the stillage. However, discussions are currently on-going for the products to be sold in the gift shops of tourism offices that are interested in local products which link back to the region’s brewing heritage.
More information
Do you want to see more about this organization? Please visit their website: https://www.kisskissbankbank.com/fr/projects/happy-dreche Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHBw52p5BT-YZ7f8KiEIB-9mmXz-nyc3u
