Every year Morocco produces considerable volumes of beer, soft drinks, mineral water and fruit juice, in plants concentrated around Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, Meknes, Marrakech and Agadir. These plants are veritable cathedrals of stainless steel: brewing and fermentation tanks, storage tanks, filling and bottling lines, pasteurisers, steam boilers, refrigeration units and food-grade piping networks. When a line is modernised, when a brewery changes bottle format or when a unit closes an old line, tonnes of stainless steel, carbon steel, copper, brass and aluminium come out at once — a stock that must be managed cleanly, without disrupting the lines that keep running.
What makes this sector special is its double requirement: food-grade and continuity. On one side, every piece of equipment has been in contact with drinks meant for consumption: cleaning before collection and rigorous metal separation determine recycling quality. On the other, a beverage plant almost never stops: technical shutdowns are short and planned, and collections must fit into them without delaying restart. This guide reviews the metal stocks of Moroccan breweries and bottling plants, the sorting to apply and the organisation of collections compatible with your production shutdowns.
The metal stocks of a brewery
A brewery is first and foremost a stainless-steel boilermaking plant. The heart of the process — brewing, fermentation, maturation, filtration — uses brewing vessels, cylindro-conical fermentation tanks, bright tanks, filters, plate heat exchangers and flash pasteurisers, mostly in food-grade stainless steel, completed by cooling coils in stainless steel or copper, transfer pumps and kilometres of piping. Added to this equipment are steam boilers and their networks, air and CO2 compressors, refrigeration plants, electrical installations and copper cabling, plus the frameworks and structures of the production halls.
The second stock is packaging: filling lines, fillers, labellers, case packers, palletisers, bottle and can conveyors, and the whole handling fleet — forklifts, pallet trucks, skips. Reformed metal kegs, crates and storage supports complete the lot, as do aluminium joinery and the cold rooms of storage areas. When a format changes or a line is modernised, an entire line often comes out at once: a large, mixed lot to sort on site before loading. Our guide to sorting metals in business gives the basics of this sorting, and our article on scrap metal from sugar mills and oil presses completes the picture of the food sector.
Water, soft-drink and juice bottlers: lines and cold rooms
At mineral-water, soft-drink and juice bottlers, the noble metal dominates too: food-grade stainless steel is everywhere the product flows. PET bottle blow-moulders, rinsers, fillers, cappers, labellers, shrink-packers and palletisers are mounted on stainless frames, with belt conveyors, accumulation tables and guide structures in stainless steel or aluminium. Water-treatment units — filters, softeners, reverse-osmosis units, storage tanks and disinfection stations — add stainless tanks, pumps and piping networks.
Cold rooms and refrigeration units are a stock apart: sandwich panels with metal facings, evaporators, condensers, compressors, copper piping for refrigeration circuits and electrical cabling. Mind the refrigerants: they must be recovered by qualified workers before any dismantling, never released into the atmosphere. The same principle applies to ammonia circuits in some industrial installations, which require supervised decommissioning. A well-prepared lot, refrigerants recovered and metals separated, loads faster and is recovered through the right channels.
Stainless steel, aluminium, copper and brass: sorting without mixing
The step that changes everything in a brewery or bottling plant is separating stainless steel. Tanks, food-grade piping, fillers and stainless conveyors are stainless steel, while ancillary frames, storage structures and supports are most often carbon steel. Mixed together, they all leave as ordinary scrap; separated, stainless steel keeps its specificity and is recovered through its own channel. A magnet is enough for the first sort: food-grade austenitic stainless steel is barely magnetic, unlike carbon steel. Our article on stainless steel buy-back explains the differences to know.
Aluminium deserves its own channel: conveyor profiles, covers, joinery, cold-room panels and light machine parts must not end up with steel. Copper is found in coils, exchangers, motor and pump windings, refrigeration circuits and electrical cabling; brass in taps, valves and fittings on steam and water networks. These non-ferrous metals deserve their own containers, sheltered from damp. For copper in particular, our guide to copper buy-back recalls best practice.
Food hygiene: cleaning before collection
Every piece of equipment in a brewery or bottling plant has been in contact with drinks: wort, beer, syrups, juice, flavoured waters. Before any collection, tanks, piping, fillers and pasteurisers must be emptied, rinsed and cleaned under the plant's procedures, including clean-in-place circuits and cleaning-product residues. Remains of wort, yeast, syrup or pulp must not leave with the metal: they soil the lot, complicate handling and can cause problems in the recycling channel.
In practice, plan a preparation phase before collection day: full draining, rinsing with clean water, draining of tanks and lines, then drying. Cleaning effluents join the plant's treatment circuit, never the ground or the stormwater network. For equipment that held chemical cleaning products, food-grade lubricants or pressurised gases, check the safety data sheets and isolate the items concerned. A clean lot means faster loading, more reliable weighing and a channel that accepts the metal without reservation.
Working during technical shutdowns, in complete safety
The intervention window is short: technical shutdowns in a beverage plant are counted in days, sometimes in hours, and maintenance teams need access and working areas. So plan the collection as soon as the shutdown is announced: lot inventory, cleared consolidation area away from production flows, truck access, lifting equipment for heavy items — tanks, boilers, filler frames — and a named contact on site to validate the inventory and coordinate with maintenance.
Safety deserves particular attention in these plants: steam networks still under pressure, CO2 and pressurised-gas circuits, hot surfaces, confined tanks and spaces, chemical cleaning products, slippery floors. Before any dismantling, lock out energy sources — steam, electricity, compressed air, gas — ventilate tanks and confined spaces, and forbid hot cutting near alcohol or flammable-product storage areas without a hot-work permit. Boilers and pressure equipment follow their own decommissioning rules, with dismantling by qualified workers. MOUMETAL collects on site throughout Morocco, with loading equipment suited to industrial access.
FAQ — Scrap metal from breweries and bottling plants
When should a collection be scheduled in a brewery or bottling plant? During a planned technical shutdown, when the lines concerned are stopped and accessible. Plan ahead from the shutdown announcement: inventory, consolidation area and truck access are prepared before maintenance teams arrive.
Must tanks and lines be cleaned before collection? Yes: full draining, rinsing and draining under the plant's procedures. Residues of wort, yeast, syrup or pulp must not leave with the metal.
Must refrigerants in cold rooms be recovered? Yes, imperatively, by qualified workers, before any dismantling of refrigeration units, evaporators and circuits. They must never be released into the atmosphere.
How do you recognise food-grade stainless steel on a beverage line? With a magnet first: food-grade austenitic stainless steel is barely magnetic, unlike the carbon steel of frames and structures. Appearance helps too: stainless steel keeps a bright finish and does not rust.
Does MOUMETAL cover all beverage production regions? Yes: Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, Meknes, Marrakech, Agadir and all of Morocco — with on-site collections and full lot traceability.
Have MOUMETAL recover metals from your brewery or bottling plant
Breweries, soft-drink, mineral-water and juice plants: MOUMETAL collects and recovers your metals in Morocco, with collections scheduled on your technical shutdowns and full traceability. To go further, read our guide to sorting metals, our article on scrap metal from sugar mills and oil presses and our scrap metal buying page. Contact us: +212 660 690 806 — contact@moumetal.com.