The glass industry is using a range of processes – including less energy-intensive techniques, increased recycling and slimmed down bottles – to reduce its carbon footprint. The wine industry is reaping the benefits too.
Contents:
- A well-charted roadmap
- Enter low-carbon energy
- Cullet is king
- Ramping up circularity
- Featherweight bottles
A well-charted roadmap
Packaging is currently the source of 30 to 40% of carbon emissions in the wine industry. But not for much longer. Flagging up the profound changes that are gaining momentum, the French Glass Industry Federation (FIV) issued in short succession its decarbonisation roadmap to the Ministry of Industry and a Sector Transition Plan drafted with ADEME*. As FIV chairman Jacques Bordat stressed last July: “Glass manufacturers have made a pledge and going forward are investing in measures and plans to decarbonise production”. Verallia, Europe’s leading producer of glass packaging for drinks and food products, in fact defined its strategy in 2020. Its aim is to reduce its CO2 emissions by 46% by 2030 compared with 2019 (scopes 1 and 2)**, initially by innovating in fusion technology.
Enter low-carbon energy
“Most greenhouse gases produced by glass manufacturers are generated by the production process”, explains Marie-Astrid Gossé, Verallia Group’s marketing director. “That’s why we introduced an electric furnace in our Cognac facilities in March 2024, which reduces our carbon footprint by 60% compared with a traditional furnace which mainly runs on gas”. Construction of hybrid furnaces – 80% electricity/20% gas – is based on the same rationale. American company O-I Glass injected around 65 million dollars into its Veauche (Loire) facilities to equip one of its furnaces with this technology and a heat recovery and air preheating system by 2025. The first hybrid Verallia furnace is due to go on-stream in 2025 in Zaragoza Spain followed by Saint-Romain Le-Puy (Loire) in France in 2026. The Tourres & Cie facilities belonging to Saverglass in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) will be similarly equipped in 2027.
Cullet is king
Also, rather than tap into natural resources, glass manufacturers now primarily use cullet, or glass debris from the recycling process. “Ten additional points of cullet in furnaces reduces CO2 emissions by 5% and energy usage by 2.5%”, stresses Gossé. “However, availability of cullet varies depending on the region, which implies improving collection of waste glass”. Verallia is thus investing in its 19 cullet treatment centres in eight countries, mainly to improve optical sorting and thereby optimise the quality of the cullet injected back into the furnaces.
Ramping up circularity
Re-use is another way of developing circularity for glass packaging. As Verallia’s head of marketing says, “In a mature system, re-use after reconditioning can lead to a four-fold reduction in energy usage and CO2 emissions of glass bottles”. The rationale is borne out by the fact that glass seems to have been designed for this very purpose. “Glass packaging is 100% recyclable and can be endlessly recycled. It is easy to re-use because it contains one ingredient, is inert and transparent. It is also robust and can withstand cleaning”. Marie-Astrid Gossé is in no doubt that “in addition to continued efforts on this aspect, deposit-return schemes will create opportunities for glass, provided an entire ecosystem can be re-created”. Irrespective of whether they are single use or re-usable, glass containers are ultimately recycled into new packaging – the collection rate in Europe is 80.2%.
Featherweight bottles
The final aspect that can be leveraged is eco-design. “On top of environmental imperatives, a lot of wineries are mindful to lighten their packaging, particularly for export markets. Monopolies like the SAQ in Canada and Systembolaget in Sweden have set a maximum threshold for bottle weight”, stresses Gossé. Consequently, new, lighter ranges are regularly developed, whilst retaining the technical and aesthetic features of the initial bottles. The induced reduction in terms of carbon footprint benefits the entire value chain, including transportation. “The process does, however, require the use of cutting-edge modelling to estimate optimal glass distribution for lighter alternatives with advanced monitoring systems on production lines then tests to ensure the bottles are totally resilient”. In July 2024, Verallia validated tests on its Ecova 2 Champagne bottle in conjunction with Maison Telmont. The bottle weighs 800 grams, which is 35 less than the previous version and 100 compared with the conventional model. The difference is invisible to the naked eye but very noticeable for the environment.
Florence Jaroniak, translate by Sharon Nagel © Adobestock
*ADEME: the French agency for the environment and energy management.
**Scope 1 refers to greenhouse gas emissions stemming directly from a company’s business; Scope 2 covers indirect energy-induced emissions produced outside the company’s facilities.
Sources:
https://www.adelphe.fr/mieux-nous-connaitre/actualites/plans-prevention-deco-conception
https://www.entreprises.gouv.fr/files/files/enjeux/d%C3%A9carbonation/feuille-de-route-verre.pdf