Close the Glass Loop: a multi-stakeholder partnership to collect more, better quality glass
Today, 76% of glass packaging placed on the EU market is collected for recycling. Close the Glass Loop is a bottom-up, collaborative, public-private partnership aimed to unite the glass collection and recycling value chain, and to establish a material stewardship programme that will result in more bottle-to-bottle recycling. Its objective is to achieve an average of 90% collection rate of used glass packaging at EU level by 2030 and a better quality of recycled glass.
Close the glass loop brings together the whole value chain together
- from glass producers, to brand owners and fillers, to consumers and glass treaters, via the Extended Producer Responsibility and waste management schemes, collectors and municipalities
- at European and national level with a common goal.
Close the glass loop:
- promotes selective collection of glass packaging to increase the quality of untreated cullet (waste glass)
- optimises and develops sorting and treating systems to increase yields, even from poor collection systems and generate more furnace-ready cullet; and
- exchanges knowledge and best practice on collection, sorting and treatment systems between countries.
Close the Glass Loop aims to meet the following objectives:
- Better quality of recycled glass, (more recycled content used in a new production loop)
- 90% collection rate of used glass packaging in the EU by 2030 (up from the current average of 76%)
These objectives will be achieved via:
- Circularity & Innovation: to address structural challenges in the glass collection-recycling chain, common to most EU countries
- Coordination of National Platforms: to support the development of national action plans and facilitate the coordination and exchange of information between leaders of national platforms and action plans
- Communication & Awareness-Raising: to promote best practices that improve glass collection & recycling at EU member state level.