Ardagh’s recycled glass briquettes win a Sustainability Award

Ardagh has won a Sustainability Award in the inaugural ‘Pre-Commercialised Innovation’ category for its method of producing remeltable briquettes from the fine particle glass rejected during the recycling process, allowing 100 percent of recycled glass to be remelted into new glass bottles and jars.

The rejected glass makes up 10 percent of glass collected for recycling and is currently unusable in glass manufacture because it contains loose organics and CSP (ceramic, stone and porcelain) which can cause blistering in new containers. It is typically diverted to road aggregate or is lost to landfill and can never be recovered.

Driven by the goal to maximise cullet recovery for remelt, Ardagh worked with various partners to develop the recipe and method to produce briquettes from the rejected glass, which can be melted safely in the furnace without any adverse effects – closing the recycling loop. The award attracted 63 entries from across the world and was narrowed down to the top 5 in Packaging Europe’s online awards event.

On being announced the winner, Brendan O’Meara from Ardagh’s European Glass Cullet team commented, “We’re incredibly proud to win the Sustainability Award, particularly with such strong competition. The potential of the briquettes to recover 100 percent of collected glass for remelt is a significant achievement. Special thanks go to Stewart Wright at Wright Engineering and Professor Paul Bingham at Sheffield Hallam University for their incredible support and expertise.”

Ardagh’s Chief Sustainability Officer, John Sadlier, added, ”We are delighted to receive recognition for this particularly important project that supports us in achieving our ambitious sustainability targets. We hope the additional cullet available as briquettes will help to achieve the ultimate objective of 95 percent cullet and 5 percent raw materials within the glass batch, reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in the furnace.”

For more on Ardagh’s development of the briquettes, please click here.