Glass, the environmentally friendly packaging

Health, integrity of taste and protection of the environment. These are the three concepts driving  glass. A reusable and recyclable material, completely free from safety risks. Also the protagonist of continuous growth, serving  Made in Italy valuable food. An optimistic picture, indeed ‘green’, but improvable. Starting with collection and recycling, at the top of the so-called ‘waste hierarchy’, as emerged in the round table organized by Assovetro in Rome, on 12.2.19.

Glass, production growing

The production of glass bottles, in the first 10 months of 2018, grew by 3.2%. Doubling the growth trend of the last 30 years (+1.5% average), up to surpassing 3 million tons. Many but not enough to cover demand. The raw material shortage in 2017 contributed to the increase in bottle imports in 2018 (+25%, almost 519 thousand tons).

Wine, of which Italy confirms itself as the world’s leading producer, drives demand. Especially thanks to sparkling wines. The export of sparkling wines, between 2001 and 2017, surged by 566.2% in value (264.8% in quantity). Of the 700 million sparkling wine bottles produced, 64% (450 million) go abroad. And exports also increase for empty bottles (+7%), thanks to  design Italian design appreciated worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia.

Glass, risk-free packaging

The  performance of jars (considered as small food jars) is less sparkling. Production totals just over 230 thousand tons (+0.2%), with an export decline (-11%) partly due to the shortage of white (i.e. colorless) glass. However, glass remains the best packaging for food, for some simple reasons:

– food safety, thanks to the absence of migration into food and beverages (which instead characterize plastics and some metals),

– quality of food, preserved at best in its authentic organoleptic properties, (1)

– enhancement of the content, thanks to the inimitable and perpetual transparency.

The superiority of glass as food packaging has been demonstrated on several occasions. It is more effective in preserving vitamins in tomatoes, compared to cans and multilayer material. And better preserves the qualities of wine, compared to the ‘bag-in-box'.

Regarding food safety, glass shines. ‘The consumption of glass packaging is growing because consumers are increasingly aware that the use of plastic carries the risk of releasing harmful substances into food, such as phthalates and bisphenol A‘, emphasizes Marco Ravasi, president of hollow glass producers at Assovetro. Recalling the risks of other materials, long underestimated despite the well-established impact on the nervous, reproductive, and endocrine systems.

Glass, champion of the circular economy

The environmental virtues of glass are recalled by Edo Ronchi, father of the waste management and recycling legislation in Italy (the ‘Ronchi decree’, indeed, 1997) as well as president of the Sustainable Development Foundation. (2) ‘It is a durable, reusable, recyclable material. Unlike plastic – which when recycled does not reproduce new containers, which require virgin polymers – glass cullet allows the reproduction of new glass packaging, with the same characteristics as those made with virgin raw materials‘.

The Italian glass industry absorbs all the glass waste collected in the country and reuses it to produce new packaging. (3) All this for unlimited cycles, without material loss and with an energy amount 4-6 times lower than that required for production from virgin raw materials. An exemplary material in the circular economy, as well as useful:

– to counteract the effects of climate change,

– to reduce waste in the seas, where plastic packaging is still a main culprit,

– to mitigate the risks of microplastic pollution, which also carry over into wastewater destined for agriculture (as evidenced by a recent study in Lombardy), as well as in food.

Glass collection, still too much waste

Recycling involves 73%  of packaging placed on the market (2017, +2% compared to 2016). More can be done, but greater commitment is needed. ‘To truly recycle everything, the quality of collection must be improved’, explains Franco Grisan, president of CoReVe, the national consortium for glass collection and recycling.

6% of glass scrap Today collected throughout Italy is destined for waste. Due to over two and a half million tons of materials foreign to glass and incompatible with the recycling process – as they contain lead, not allowed in glass (except residual amounts) – such as ceramics and crystals. In 2017 the waste share increased worryingly (+41%, compared to 2016), with a negative impact on industrial processes. The identification (by optical readers) and elimination of waste containing lead slows down the process and increases thecosts. With an additional environmental cost, as these materials must be disposed of in landfills, as waste.

Collection and recycling, how to improve

Improve Improving the quality and quantity of collected and recycled glass is possible and indeed necessary, but targeted interventions are needed. The round table organized by Assovetro highlighted a series of priorities.

- More separate waste collection. In some areas of Italy, separate collection of glass reaches 80% of the material placed on the market, while in others it remains at 30%. Local administrations must be held accountable. The video made by students from a school in Termini Imerese, within an initiative promoted by Assovetro, is telling, where interviewees declare themselves sensitive to the recycling issue but complain about the lack of response from the city administration.

– Less waste. Foreign materials severely hinder recycling, with an estimated cost of 200 euros per ton. They also create a disposal problem, though not as serious as that concerning plastic packaging. Waste continues to increase proportionally to collection (from 177 to 250 tons, 2016-2017). This trend must be reversed by educating the population on proper waste disposal.

- More glass scrap treatment plantsMore plants are needed. Increasing the capacity of plants can improve the trade balance of glass packaging, promoting economy and employment in a growing sector. It is necessary to increase downstream production capacity, since the plants are saturated (and in fact three new furnaces are arriving). But also upstream, since the creation of scrap selection platforms near collection points is urgent. The collected glass still travels too far to be transported to the glassworks located in the areasindustrial areas of large packaging users.

– Simplify the delivery of collected glass.  Organizing the Municipalities (and their collection delegates) into consortia simplifies the management of scrap. Complaints arise about initiatives that complicate these processes, such as a law of the Puglia Region that forces CoReVe to manage relations with each single Municipality instead of with a few consortia representing them.

– Regulatory interventions. The legislation is faltering, slowed by disputes over central and regional powers. And it is unable to meet the urgency of  End of Waste, to upgrade 'waste' into secondary raw material (SRM). Italy and the EU have not issued implementing provisions and at least six decrees are stuck at the Ministry of the Environment. The plants are ready to process waste to transform it into SRM, but are blocked by regulatory standstill. This results in enormous waste of diapers, tires, material collected by street sweeping (sand and gravel), biogas (to be networked after carbon dioxide recovery).

Marta Strinati

Notes

(1) With the caution of using glass with variable color intensity, related to foods susceptible to oxidation (e.g. extra virgin olive oils)

(2) Edo Ronchi, multiple times Minister of the Environment

(3) The Italian glass container industry includes 18 glassworks with 40 plants, 55% located in the North. The turnover amounts to 2 billion euros and the employees number 8,300, 97% of them permanent, also due to the complexity of the process, which rewards experience. Source: Assovetro