Circular Economy The glass industry’s contribution taking the container glass sector as an example

Dr Markus de Hesselle What is a circular economy ?

• A circular economy addresses “processes” : – Industrial manufacturing – Lifestyle • A circular economy is a closed-loop system as opposed to a linear economy, which is based on the principle of take – make - use – throw away

• A circular economy is a regenerative system : – Minimising resource consumption, waste and emissions – Focusing on re-use, maintenance, durable design, recycling and upcycling

• A circular economy aims to sustain and improve consumer quality of life

Source: Wikipedia “Circular economy“, 09.10.2018 The glass industry’s contribution to a circular economy

• Glass can be regarded – as inert material – as permanent material

• Permanent materials – Can be completely recycled without loss of mass or quality – Glass can be re-melted without any downsizing The closed loop

• Disposable glass containers – Glass is 100 percent recyclable and therefore makes a significant contribution to environmental

CONSUMER BUYS AND protection USES

FILLING THEN TAKES… • Returnable glass bottles

– Returnable glass bottles are refilled some CLEANING …RETURNABLE BOTTLES BACK TO 40-60 times before they are sent for recycling. THE RETAILER

GLASS FACTORY This means that, overall, fewer bottles need to MAKES NEW DISPOSABLE BOTTLES OUT OF BOTTLES TO be manufactured, which saves resources. OLD CONTAINER

• In Germany all waste glass (jar, bottle, window COLLECTION AND TRANSPORT pane, tableware) can be disposed of either in public collection or industrial collection systems

Glass packaging – Perfect recycling protects our environment Source: Verallia Deutschland AG Glass cullet

Cullet 60% • Glass cullet is the most important (average; up to 90% in green glass) raw material

Quartz sand 29% • Need for: – sorting by colour – removal of all non-glass waste that people put in public containers

• Rule of thumb – 10% cullet saves 3% energy

Soda 5% • Drawback due to the market situation: – Cullet price exceeds cost of raw materials Lime 4.5% and energy savings Dolomite 1% Feldspar 0.5 %

Source: Verallia Deutschland AG Water use

• Target to minimise use of fresh/ ground water • Closed-loop systems

• A need still exists to – Use fresh water for sanitary facilities – Refill evaporated water – Exchange water in closed-loop systems according to technical parameters

• Good practice – Re-use of rejects from one closed loop system in another closed loop system if the technical parameters match

Source: Verallia Deutschland AG Energy consumption

• Consumption is mainly defined by the glass melting process • Strong need to minimise energy consumption of the furnace • Strong need to balance energy consumption, quality and emissions

• A state-of-the-art furnace already recovers energy by heating up a regenerator to preheat the air needed for combustion

• Heat can be recovered at several stages of production process depending on the – Simplicity of “collecting” heat versus diffuse sources – Available potential versus technical recovery investment Source: Verallia Deutschland AG Heat recovery

• Melting glass is a high temperature process • Exhaust gases contain energy which can be recovered • Several methods of recovering exhaust gas energy are used in the industry – Electrical power generation – Building heating – Hot water heating for sanitary facilities • In a favourable infrastructure the maximum possible heat recovery can be achieved by delivering heat to a heat distribution network • One constraint is the minimum temperature of the exhaust gas to ensure the necessary distribution of emissions in the atmosphere (defined by the site permit) Source: Verallia Deutschland AG Summary

• Glass is a product that evidently contributes to circular economy • Glass is a permanent material • A high recycling rate necessitates social responsibility and this should be emphasised by national regulations

• The glass industry contributes to the circular economy mind-set by optimising the consumption of resources such as energy, water and batch material • Projects that have already been implemented show the extent to which heat recovery can be used