Martha Cardoso, Recycling Tequila Waste into Bricks

Martha Jimenez Cardoso, the director of sustainability at Astral Tequila, is helping drive forward her company’s commitment to a circular economy by turning tequila waste into usable bricks.

During the tequila distillation process, Cardoso takes the waste that is created and repurposes it into adobe-style bricks, which are then donated to build homes in local communities where nearly half of the residents live below the poverty line. One bottle roughly works out to two bricks.

The Tequila Regulatory Council estimated that in 2016, the industry generated more than 14.7 million tons of bagasse (the fibrous remnants of the agave pina after steaming, crushing, and fermenting) and 2.5 billion liters of vinasse (the liquid runoff of the distillation process) annually.

Cardoso helped lead the way to finding a solution to combine soil with the leftover bagasse and vinasse from tequila distillation to create adobe for building. Adobe is the perfect building material for Mexico as its high thermal mass allows it to stay cool during the day and releases heat at night. Plus, it produces less waste, consumes less energy, and creates a lower environmental impact than mainstream building materials.

“The most important thing is to be surrounded by people with the same goal of helping by doing their part to make dreams possible together,” says Cardoso. “Sustainability is a topic that is very important not only to me but also for many people who seek to reduce the impact on the environment, and it is a joy to know that I do two things that I like in the same project.”

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