Recycling: Libbey Celebrating green co-operation

Celebrating one year of green co-operation

After one year of collaboration, Libbey and Rebottled have repurposed and transformed 81,000 used wine bottles were into sustainable drinking glasses.

Within the last year, global glass tableware manufacturer Libbey Holland has helped its young scale-up partner to ramp up production of a new product extension for Rebottled, a whisky tumbler range.

Libbey EMEA and Rebottled have been in talks since 2019, exploring possibilities for a sustainable and scalable collaboration. The partnership was created in March 2020.

“It is an amazing experience to develop and bring new life to used products such as wine bottles; it is motivating and brings energy to all of us at the factory in Holland,” says Marco van Valburg, VicePresident of Engineering at Libbey EMEA.

“In the production process, the precleaned bottles are cut at the required capacity by a high-power laser.

“To give them a fl awless and smooth rim, safe for consumer use, the glasses are fi re polished. After this process, what used to be a bottle of wine is now a trendy drink glass.” In these unprecedent times, Libbey went through a challenging period, but grew meaningful partnerships, followed commitments, improved services and rediscovered innovation processes.

Libbey continues providing highquality glassware, good service, supporting local communities and thinking about the environment.

Rebottled has been affected by the pandemic and the closing of many of the catering collecting points.

Jermain van der Graaf, CEO of Rebottled said: “We took the opportunity to focus towards B2B and e-commerce, expanding to Belgium and Germany and rolling out new products.” �

http://www.libbey.eu/foodservice, Leerdam, The Netherlands http://www.rebottled.com, Utrecht, The Netherlands