AGC Glass Europe and German recycling specialist Reiling have successfully recycled pre consumer automotive windshields into new automotive glass on an industrial scale, marking a major step forward for circularity in the flat glass sector.
The project was carried out through AGC’s “Recycle Glass” initiative, which focuses on collecting and recycling flat glass waste for reuse in glass manufacturing processes. According to the companies, assembled windshield waste has now been successfully remelted into new automotive glass within a closed flat to flat recycling loop.
Marc Foguenne, Vice President Sustainability at AGC Glass Europe, described the development as an important milestone for the automotive glass industry.
He stated that the collaboration demonstrates how end of life windshield material can be transformed into a high value raw material for new automotive glass production.
The companies explained that the recycling process enables AGC to significantly increase cullet usage in its automotive glass furnaces. By combining recycled windshields with cutting loss cullet, AGC can reportedly achieve a recycled glass ratio of more than 56% in automotive glass production.
According to AGC, every tonne of recycled cullet used can save up to 0.7 tonnes of CO2 emissions and reduce virgin raw material consumption by approximately 1.2 tonnes, including sand and soda ash.
Reiling developed a specialized treatment process capable of separating high quality glass from contaminants typically found in assembled windshields. The resulting cullet quality is suitable for demanding automotive float glass applications, where purity and consistency requirements remain extremely high.
Marc Uphoff, Managing Director of Reiling Glas Recycling GmbH & Co. KG, stated that recycled windshield cullet could become an increasingly important raw material stream for the automotive glass industry in the future.
Following the successful industrial scale trials with pre consumer windshields, AGC now plans to expand the process toward post consumer automotive glass sourced from windshield replacement activities, aftermarket channels and end of life vehicles.
The company also aims to collect and process more than 300,000 pre consumer windshields as part of its broader circularity strategy for the automotive glass sector.
