Glass is 100% recyclable – and this without any loss of quality. In Germany the Federal Association of the German Waste Management, Water and Recycling Industry (Bundesverband der Deutschen Entsorgungs-, Wasser- und Kreislaufwirtschaft e.V. – BDE) and the Federal Association for Secondary Materials and Waste Management (Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung e.V. – bvse) have now published a new guide entitled “Design for Good Glass Recycling”. This guide provides manufacturers with practical recommendations for sustainable packaging development and is one that is also received well at European level.
Glass is one of the few raw materials that is fully and indefinitely recyclable. Unlike plastics, glass does not lose quality with every recycling process it undergoes.
The benefits of glass recycling are remarkable: the use of waste glass reduces the energy consumption for producing new glass packaging substantially. This not only brings down CO₂ emissions but also raw material costs. In Germany some 2.5 million tons of waste glass is collected annually and processed into new glass packaging – a proof of concept of the system.
Recommended action for industry
The new guide issued by the bvse and BDE associations features hands-on and design-oriented recommendations for packaging producers and glassworks.
The aim: to incorporate the recyclability of glass packaging into the design process from the outset.
One key aspect here is glass shape: this should be designed in such a fashion that impurities and foreign substances can be separated completely from the glass container. This markedly reduces contamination in the recycling plant and increases the quality of the recycled material – a decisive factor for high-quality glass recycling.
Other recommendations include avoiding aluminium heat-sealing films, hard-to-remove plastic labels as well as full-surface opaque coatings and lacquer finishes that prevent optical sorting systems from detecting the colour of the glass.
Thanks to such design-oriented approaches companies can already consider circularity aspects at the development stage of packaging.
This is an important step towards the Circular Economy.
Thinking sustainable from the outset
The publication by BDE and bvse sends a clear signal in favour of more sustainability in the design process. The recommendations also go down well with the European packaging industry: the Association of Glass Recyclers FERVER supports the initiative.
The Guide “Design für gutes Glasrecycling” (Design for Good Glass Recycling) is available for download free of charge on the BDE and bvse websites.
It enables glass producers and the packaging industry to proactively shape a more sustainable future – without having to compromise on functionality and efficiency. It is a practical step towards better glass recycling and genuine sustainability.
