North American 2011 glass packaging outlook

Leaving a smaller environmental footprint and appealing to the health-conscious consumer were major areas of focus for the North American glass container industry in 2010 and will continue to be in 2011.

In the United States, the glass container industry operates 48 glass-manufacturing plants in 22 states. In terms of market segments, 59 percent of glass containers manufactured domestically are for the beer industry, followed by food (18 %), non-alcoholic beverages (8 %), wine (6 %), liquor (4 %), ready to drink (4 %), and cosmetics, fragrances and pharmaceuticals (1 %).

The North American glass container industry worked diligently in 2010 to create more recycling awareness and improve recycled glass collection for bottle-to-bottle recycling, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use of raw materials, extend the life of glass manufacturing furnaces, save energy, and meet the industry’s 50 percent recycled content goal by 2013.

Doubling the U.S. glass container recycling rate (28% in 2008) would allow manufacturers to use 50 percent recycled glass or “cullet” to make new glass containers, saving enough energy to power 21,978 homes for one year and removing 181,550 tons of waste from landfills every month or remove the equivalent auto CO2 emissions of 400,000 from our roads each day.

The importance of the industry’s goal of using 50 percent cullet in the manufacture of new glass containers by 2013 was also highlighted by the North American industry’s release of its first and highly comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA), which was able to enumerate the benefits of the increased use of cullet in reducing the industry’s environmental footprint. The findings of the LCA will help lay the foundation for the industry’s efforts in 2011 and beyond.