50 years of recycling in France – O-I Glass’ plant in Reims

50 years ago, Jean Tournier la Ravoire, a plant manager at a glass factory in Reims, France, started a pilot glass recycling project for the community. He was looking for ways to lower costs after the 1970s oil crisis, and since recycled glass melted at a lower temperate, he had a community collection bin built on site to increase the amount of recycled glass he could use in the plant.

The Reims glass plant, now one of O-I’s nine glass plants in France, is celebrating 50 years of that visionary glass recycling pilot program that paved the way to 60 percent average cullet use across O-I France footprint.

Glass is inherently sustainable – fully recyclable and infinitely recycle – and O-I celebrates Jean Tournier la Ravoire’s visionary pilot program that recognized the sustainable potential of recycled glass.