Industry concern as growth in glass recycling fades

British Glass revealed preliminary data from its members today showing that 756,000 tonnes of recycled glass was used to make new bottles and jars last year.

But this was just 14,000 tonnes more than in 2005 - while industry experts believe a year-on-year increase of 125,000 tonnes of glass recycling may be needed to reach European Packaging Directive targets set for 2008.

The rate of growth in glass recycling by the container industry has slowed from 10% in 2005 to just 1.8% in 2006. The Sheffield-based industry body suggested some of the reduced growth rate was the result of competition for material from the aggregates industry.

But even when including glass recycled by the aggregates sector into building products, British Glass said recycling in the second half of 2006 fell below levels seen in 2005.

Total glass recycling in quarter three of 2006 was 314,180 tonnes, compared with 325,993 in the same period during the previous year.

Rebecca Cocking, British Glass recycling manager said: "These figures are a concern. If this slow down continues there must be real doubt about future targets. Already we need an additional 125,000 tonnes to reach the 2007 target. Whilst some of our members believe unaccredited collectors could be stockpiling glass, it´s unlikely to have an impact on this year´s figures."

Mixed collections
The warning from British Glass came after WRAP said this month that the container industry would have to get used to dealing with more mixed glass, which is harder for glassmakers to recycle than separated clear, amber and green glass (see letsrecycle.com story).

British Glass said current technology for separating mixed glass in the UK means up to 15% of valuable clear and amber glass is lost among the less valuable green glass, and "cannot effectively extracted". It said a "significant amount of this mixed glass has to be exported to other container manufacturers in Europe or, where it is very poor quality, alternative markets have to be found".

Mrs Cocking argued that along with the material being used by the aggregates industry to make building products, this meant the UK is missing out on the full environmental benefits of its glass recycling.

"Whilst overall glass recycling has increased slightly in 2006 we are missing the opportunity to maximise the environmental benefits of closed-loop glass recycling," she said.

"Maximising the amount of colour separated cullet going to the UK glass container industry delivers the biggest environmental benefit in energy use and reduced emissions. Last year alone glass recycling reduced UK CO2 emissions by around 200,000 tonnes."

She said the container industry could take "much higher tonnages of glass", but that greater volumes of clear and amber glass had to come from colour-separated glass collections.

"The growth of mixed glass collection is reducing the availability of clear and brown glass and as a result the industry has to colour separate glass before it can be recycled. This is costly and ironically increases the energy we use," Mrs Cocking warned.