Glass recycling on the increase in Europe

In 2008, an estimated 25.5 billion glass bottles and jars were dropped into bottle banks ready to be recycled, which corresponds to an average collection recycling rate of 65% for the EU’s 27 member states.

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

In Belgium and Sweden, nearly all glass bottles and jars put on the market were collected, making the vision of a zero waste packaging material an ambitious objective which, to be realised, has to rely on the strong cooperation from all stakeholders, beginning with citizens, policy makers and industry.

At EU level, taking the EU15 countries as a reference, national consumption increased by 8% over the last decade, while glass packaging waste destined to other uses and to landfill decreased by 26%, implying that there isn’t a direct correlation between consumption and waste generation.

“The results reached in glass collection for recycling prove that glass packaging is a fully sustainable resource,” says Tombeur. “Unlike other materials, 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.”