Welcome to the Glass Age

129 At the center of this endless cycle? A strong commitment to recycling in cities and towns around the world, both by individuals and by industry and the wider glass value chain. Recycling glass is a topical issue in modern societies all over the world, given the continuous increasing consumption and the recyclability of glass, but it’s nothing new: glass packaging and its recycling has been an integral component of human lifestyles for millennia. Historical and archaeological evidence demonstrates that even in antiquity, glassworkers were already collecting and reprocessing broken glass into new consumer goods. Looking to the modern era, the current glass collection schemes in Europe have been in place for over fifty years, and today, some 1.5 million bottle banks are available for residents to rely on. For decades, glass has been successfully collected for recycling via kerbside and bottle bank collection across the EU, under so-called ‘Extended Producer Responsibility’ (EPR) schemes, backed by a strong European policy framework that lays down key waste management principles (including the waste hierarchy), sets recycling targets for all packaging materials, requires separate collection of packaging waste, and introduces the EPR concept. Centre to this framework is the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD) —currently under legislative review and set to be updated as part of the flagship EU Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan that calls for further action on packaging waste prevention, reduction and recycling. As more and more people move to towns and cities —68% of the world population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050, according to the UN— glass recycling is set to become a model circular economy for sustainable cities to learn from. Europe currently has the world’s highest recycling rate at 78%, underpinned by an extensive network of curbside or local collection systems. From that, most of the bottles recycled “close the loop” as they are broken down, refined and made into new glass products —while other waste glass may be used as asphalt in road construction, as insulation in homes, or even as a soil replacement in hydroponic food set-ups. Thanks to these collective efforts, we can prevent some 9 million tons of CO 2 from being emitted per year. Whether it’s collected from a curbside or dropped off at a neighborhood bottle bank, increasing the number of bottles and jars that are collected is vital for glass manufacturers to cut back on raw materials and drive forward a circular and sustainable economy. What’s more, as well as being infinitely recyclable, glass is the only packaging that’s both reusable and refillable. To further close that gap and work towards sustainable cities around the globe, we also depend on returnable (and refillable) packaging, which can be reused dozens of times and still be recycled at the end of its life. This makes glass a permanent material that forms an endless loop. Technically, we could produce more recycled material, but are limited by availability and quality. That’s why as an industry, we’re strongly committed to working in partnership with our members, policymakers, academics, all parts of the supply chain and other stakeholders to identify powerful and practical solutions to improving our contribution to sustainability. Supporting consumers to make the sustainable choice Consumers themselves are an important part of the equation. We all have a footprint through the choices we make each and every day. We’re expanding our efforts to promote responsible production and consumption through consumer education campaigns, notably with Friends of Glass [4] —a pan- European consumer awareness platform with a footprint in 13 countries, to promote all the reasons why people should opt for products in glass packaging. Bringing together a community of self-confessed glass lovers, Friends of Glass campaigns encourage consumers to choose and recycle glass