Multinational brewery BrewDog has announced a new initiative called ‘Cans for Equity’, which involves customers returning used beer cans in exchange for shares in the business.

The company is aiming to incentivise recycling and sustainable business practices through the scheme and hopes other breweries can follow suit.

Customers that trade in 50 empty BrewDog aluminium cans at any of its UK bars can become a shareholder.

The brewery has partnered with First Mile Recycling to return the cans to industry, save energy and reduce carbon emissions, as well as preventing the cans from ending up in landfill, where they can take up to 500 years to decompose.

James Watt, CEO of BrewDog, said: “Ever since BrewDog was founded in 2007, our business practices have always challenged the norm.

“Our ground-breaking ‘Equity for Punks’ programme has been vital in helping us to accelerate our growth and build a community of 130,000 passionate shareholders in the process.”