CLOSE THE GLASS LOOP – AN INSIDE LOOK How will Close the Glass Loop, the new pan-European action platform, achieve its aim of increasing European glass recycling rates to 90%, and why is this so important now? Victoria Hattersley spoke to Adeline Farrelly, Secretary General of FEVE – one of the founding partners of the initiative – to learn more.
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we reported at the time of its official launch in June, Close the Glass Loop is an industry platform that aims to unite the glass collection and recycling value chain to achieve more bottle-to-bottle recycling. The goal is to achieve a 90% collection rate of used glass packaging in the EU by 2030. The rate currently stands at an average of 76%, although this does vary considerably from country to country: Belgium and Sweden have achieved particularly impressive levels, at 98% and 97% respectively, while the UK is at a less inspiring 68%. The second goal is to achieve an overall better quality of recycled glass, so more recycled content can be used in new production loops.
While there are other glass associations in Europe and indeed throughout the world, to our knowledge there is no comparable glass platform that brings together public and private stakeholders in this way. Clearly, then, it’s an important development in terms of Europe’s drive towards a circular economy.
The catalyst But why now? Haven’t the aims and goals embodied by Close the Glass Loop been important for a long time? “The EU is focused very heavily on trying to reduce the environmental impact of industries and pushing the idea of circularity rather than single use, so of course we wanted to address this issue,” says Adeline. “But the catalyst behind Packaging Europe | 27 |
