Europe’s Glass Makers Tout Recycling Rate

The Brussels-based organization FEVE, comprised of European Union (EU) container glass manufacturers, says that an estimated 25.5 billion glass bottles and jars were recycled in 2008.

“This corresponds to an average collection recycling rate of 65 percent for the EU27 countries and nearly 11.5 million metric tons of glass packaging collected all over Europe (including Norway, Switzerland and Turkey),” according to a FEVE press release.

“This data confirms the clear positive trend over the last year when, thanks to the collaboration of citizens, a number of EU countries have reached the ambitious 60 percent collection target fixed by the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive,” says Dominique Tombeur, president of FEVE.

Tombeur points to nations including Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Spain that made to increase collection rates, while the Czech Republic and Slovakia saw a steady improvement in the eastern region, where collection and recycling systems can still be enhanced, according to Tombeur.

In Belgium and Sweden close to 100 percent of glass bottles and jars put on the market were collected, making the vision of a zero waste packaging material nearly a reality, says FEVE.

The overall use of glass packaging in the EU, using the EU15 countries as a reference, increased by 8 percent during the previous 10 years while glass packaging, but glass heading to the landfill and unaccounted for decreased by 26 percent, “showing a clear decoupling between consumption and waste generation,” according to FEVE.

“The results reached in glass collection for recycling prove that glass packaging is a fully sustainable resource” says Tombeur. “A very high rate of collected glass is actually recycled in a new production cycle with an extremely positive impact on depletion of raw material savings, energy savings and emissions saving.”

According to FEVE, 1 metric ton of recycled glass saves 1.2 metric tons of natural raw materials and for every 10 percent of recycled glass added in the production cycle, about 3 percent of energy is saved.