The benefits of glass packaging are clear: it’s sustainable, being 100% and infinitely recyclable, reusable, and refillable. It’s inert, with no synthetic chemicals, making it safe to store food and drinks in. It’s also a beautiful, iconic material, and consumers love it.
Glass comes from nature
Glass is made from naturally occurring ingredients abundant in nature. The unique alchemy of sand, soda ash, limestone, and recycled glass continue to work its magic to create a wonderful material loved by people over the world. No other material or chemical layers are needed to complete it.
Glass is 100% recyclable and infinitely so
Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly with no loss in quality or purity. Glass recycling is a closed loop system, creating no additional waste or by-products. It is one of the very few examples where the same material can be recycled over and over again without loss of quality.
Glass containers can be reused: they can have up to 50 lives
Glass bottles and jars can also be reused and refilled before being recycled into a new bottle at the end of their lives – making glass the leading reusable option for food and beverage consumers around the world, particularly in local markets. Reusing glass bottles reduces the overall impact and combined with recyclable solutions, it increases the sustainable value of glass many times over.
Glass is good for consumers’ health
Glass is virtually inert and impermeable, making it the most stable of all packaging materials. There is no risk of harmful chemicals getting into the food or drinks that are packed in glass. No additional barriers or additives are needed.
Glass supports a robust EU Circular Economy
The container glass industry services essential EU sectors (including food, beverage, pharmaceutical and cosmetics and perfumery) – not just in domestic markets, but as an enabler for the export of high-end products across the world. Moreover, more than 125,000 people work in the glass packaging value chain across Europe.
By 2050 the container glass industry aims to achieve a major revolution in producing glass that is fit for a circular and climate-neutral economy, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals – securing the future of the sector and the jobs that depend on it across the value chain.
What’s more, it’s an environmentally friendly material and a true champion of the European circular economy, supporting local employment and boosting regional economies. All of this makes glass a sustainable option for storing food, beverages, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products, and for creating lasting economic and social value.
And that’s not all. The glass packaging industry is committed to making glass a climate-neutral packaging solution by 2050. The industry has already come a long way in decarbonising production – glass is now 30% lighter and 70% less energy intensive than it was fifty years ago – but the goal is to achieve zero carbon emissions. Read more about our positions on sustainability and how the glass industry is striving for climate-neutrality.
Sustainability is at centre stage, politically and socially, prompting businesses to assess how they operate. Environmental awareness has increased in recent years as companies and consumers become more aware of the impact of their decisions on the planet, and policy makers are making decisions and setting out policy frameworks to support this. Across Europe, there is an ambition to increase packaging recycling rates, reduce litter and find circular economy solutions.