Is glass a sustainable material?

What’s more, it’s an environmentally friendly material and a true champion of the European circular economy, supporting local employment and boosting regional economies. All of this makes glass a sustainable option for storing food, beverages, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products, and for creating lasting economic and social value.

And that’s not all. The glass packaging industry is committed to making glass a climate-neutral packaging solution by 2050. The industry has already come a long way in decarbonising production – glass is now 30% lighter and 70% less energy intensive than it was fifty years ago – but the goal is to achieve zero carbon emissions. Read more about our positions on sustainability and how the glass industry is striving for climate-neutrality.

Why is the environmental impact of packaging important?

Sustainability is at centre stage, politically and socially, prompting businesses to assess how they operate. Environmental awareness has increased in recent years as companies and consumers become more aware of the impact of their decisions on the planet, and policy makers are making decisions and setting out policy frameworks to support this. Across Europe, there is an ambition to increase packaging recycling rates, reduce litter and find circular economy solutions.

Glass packaging plays an important role in this. Although packaging is necessary to ensure the safety and stability of most products, much of it is designed to be disposable and non-recyclable. However, many consumers and businesses are already turning to more sustainable options to reduce waste and lower their environmental footprint.

And glass, as a 100% recyclable and reusable material, can be a reliable ally on this journey. The glass industry has the privilege to work with a material that has uniquely inherent sustainability benefits and is a fully fit-for-purpose packaging solution.

Why is glass a sustainable material?

Glass is made of sustainably sourced materials

Glass is made from raw materials found in nature, such as sand, soda ash and limestone, as well as recycled glass (known as cullet). These raw materials are locally and sustainably sourced, respecting the planet’s ecosystems and complying with strict specifications.

Glass is endlessly recyclable

Glass is one of the only packaging materials that can be infinitely recyclable in a closed bottle-to-bottle loop. Once produced, a glass bottle becomes the primary resource needed to produce new bottles – saving resources, energy and lowering carbon emissions.

For decades, glass has been successfully collected for recycling via kerbside and bottle bank collection across the EU under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes. Today, nearly 8 in 10 glass bottles in the EU are collected for recycling, and projects such as the Close the Glass Loop aim to increase this rate to 90%.

Glass is a reusable, returnable and refillable material

In addition to being a recyclable material, glass can also be reused without losing quality. Bottles can be used up to 50 times before being recycled and re-melted into new refillable containers at the end of their lives – closing the loop on a complete circular economy.

Returnable and refillable bottles can also be a sustainable option for local artisanal production, with the lowest footprint of any beverage packaging in local markets (AB InBev ESG Report 2020).

Glass packaging contributes to the circular economy

Glass contributes to building a strong circular economy. Because it’s recycled and produced locally by manufacturing plants rooted in local communities, the manufacturing of glass provides around 125,000 job opportunities throughout Europe.

Today the European Glass Container industry counts 162 manufacturing plants in more than 20 countries, making it one of the largest production centres in the world. Moreover, the sector contributes over €1bn to public finances each year.

Recycling glass saves natural resources, energy and reduces carbon emissions

Recycling glass saves natural resources

When properly collected, glass containers become the main material needed to produce new bottles. This means that the more cullet used in manufacturing, the fewer raw materials are needed. In fact, glass recycling helps save over 12 million tonnes of raw materials each year.

Recycling glass saves energy

One of the many sustainable benefits of recycling is the energy saved during the manufacturing process.

The more recycled glass is used, the less energy is required in the production of new containers, as cullet melts at a much lower temperature than the raw materials. For example, recycling one glass bottle can save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes.

Recycling glass reduces CO2

Recycling glass also contributes significantly to lowering carbon emissions. Each tonne of recycled content can save up to 670 kg of CO2 in the European Union, with savings increasing by 5% for every 10% of glass recycled.

Glass packaging supports UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Commitments such as the European Union’s Green Deal and the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda have put environmental sustainability at the top of the global agenda. And progressing toward the Sustainable Development Goals isn’t merely an option, but a business and social imperative.

Sustainability is a major driver for our members: our industry spends €600 million per year on energy efficiency, decarbonisation and plant upgrades – adding up to more than 10% of our production costs.

The European Glass Container industry is also committed to enabling the transition to a more resource-efficient and low-carbon economy by bringing the industry together under the “Furnaces for the Future” vision: a joint collaboration underpinning our shared commitment to reducing direct furnace CO2 emissions and meeting decarbonisation targets.

By doing so, the industry will ensure that our actions and business goals are even more in line with global commitments – and ensure that we can continue to produce glass packaging that is fully circular, climate friendly and healthy for people and the planet.

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Glass is made from natural ingredients – making it best for preserving taste and quality. As a tasteless and odourless material with no chemical interaction, glass prevents the transfer.

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Energy efficiency and low carbon technologies in container glass

New furnaces are progressively being rebuilt or adapted with innovative low carbon technologies that are much more energy -efficient than in the past. Our industry reduces energy consumption by making use of waste heat recovery technologies, Organic Rankine Cycles technology, oxy-fuel and other symbiotic technologies, which are bringing significant energy savings. While energy savings can have a positive effect there are also downsides.

New energy management systems and technologies deployed throughout the glass plants are helping to increase energy efficiency.

Waste heat recovery from flue gases, when possible, can bring significant energy savings. They can be used in the batch and/or cullet pre-heaters, where the heat of the flue gases is used to warm the raw materials. Not all plants can install this technology as it requires a lot of space. There is also the risk of having more dust build up inside the regenerators, damaging them quicker and reducing their service life.

Another great way to reduce energy is through the Organic Rankine Cycles technology, with innovative refrigerants, that can also generate power from the heat in the flue gases. This technology has however very long pay-back times and is generally only installed in countries with high electricity prices.

Where appropriate, the use of oxy-fuel furnaces, using pure oxygen with natural gas, linked with cullet pre-heating can be economically viable, and can bring some savings as there is no need to heat the nitrogen in the air. However, the production of oxygen requires electricity and needs to be added to the furnace consumption when calculating the net impact (indirect emissions from power generation).

New technologies are also emerging like the combination of oxyfuel furnaces with methane cracking, where natural gas is injected in the regenerators to produce a syngas which can also reduce the energy consumption and the CO2 emissions.

The reduction in energy use in the container glass sector has been on a steep downward trajectory over almost 100 years and is now reaching its thermodynamic limit.

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