Europe’s glass value chain reaches major milestone at 80% glass collection for recycling

According to the latest value chain data released today by Close the Glass Loop the EU27 + the UK average collection for recycling rate for glass packaging hit a new record rate of 80% in 2020. This represents an increase of 2 percentage points compared to 2019.

“2020 has been a peculiar year. With the COVID pandemic, we have witnessed changing consumption and collection patterns with the glass waste stream shifting from the hospitality sector – a major consumption channel for glass – to households. The latest collection rate demonstrates the strong resilience of the glass packaging value chain despite this challenging context” says Adeline Farrelly, Secretary General of FEVE (the European Container Glass Federation), on behalf of Close the Glass Loop partners.

The multi-stakeholder partnership Close the Glass Loop aims to achieve a post-consumer glass container collection target of 90% by 2030, and to ensure that this is recycled into the container glass production loop. The vast majority of the 13.8 million tonnes collected go back to remelt new bottles and jars.

“The 2020 statistics confirm our steady progress towards reaching our ambitious objectives on glass recycling. We are convinced that the pathway set by the Close the Glass Loop platform to establish a strong collaboration along the glass packaging value chain, at European level but also at national level, is key to ensure that we collect more and better-quality glass” says Marine Ronquetti, Secretary General of FERVER (European Federation of Glass Recyclers), on behalf of Close the Glass Loop partners.