Recycling is one of the most prominent ways to improve manufacturing sustainability by way of reducing the use of virgin raw materials, limiting energy consumption and reducing overall CO₂ emissions from flat glass manufacturing. The increased use of recycled glass is  therefore essential to maximize the sector’s contribution to the EU climate-neutrality objective. The flat glass industry is calling for the creation of a closed-loop recycling system in which broken or waste flat glass – known as cullet – can be sorted, collected and returned to flat glass furnaces.

 Recent efforts of the industry have led to an increase of the average share of cullet used to produce flat glass in Europe from 20 to 26% between 2010 and 2018. Despise this substantial increase, the untapped potential remains substantial today: only 5% of flat glass from construction and demolition projects is recycled nowadays. To reverse this situation, it is essential that the end-of-life glazing is dismantled, sorted and sent to a recycling route for this waste to be transformed into a valuable resource. Should all end-of-life glazing be recycled into flat glass in Europe, the percentage of cullet used to produce new flat glass products could be increased to roughly 40%, compared to today’s 26% average. 

This dedicated page gathers all our resources on the recycling of flat glass and will be regularly updated with the latest news on the topic.