Ardagh Glass Packaging is on track to reduce water usage by one-third across its 20 European sites.
Two water reduction projects undertaken over the past year have achieved substantial water savings: the Closed Loop Water Cooling Process in Limmared, Sweden, and the Water Reduction Project in Ujscie, Poland.
In Limmared, by installing a two-step, closed loop, air and water-cooling system, air has replaced water which was previously taken from the nearby river, to cool the production process.
It has delivered a 66% reduction in surface water usage compared with 2021.
In Ujscie, independent closed loop systems were installed for clean and dirty water, in place of local groundwater, to cool the IS machines.
This has delivered a 25% reduction in water usage compared with 2021.
The water saving initiatives recently won the 2022 Glass Focus Sustainable Practice award from British Glass.
Judges said: ‘It is fabulous to see the transfer of ability with one idea in one place ending up as several ideas in several places, and everybody benefits, and that’s fantastic.
“This wasn’t just done on one site, it was done on 20 sites, really demonstrating that this technology is transferable to other sites and also reduces significant amounts of water throughout their operations.”
Annelene Ikemann, Sustainability Director at Ardagh Glass Packaging – Europe, said:
“We’re delighted with the progress made thanks to these initiatives: within two years we have been able to significantly reduce our water footprint, bringing us close to achieving our sustainability 2030 target. We will continue to focus on water as a resource and further reduce usage across all our facilities.”
Reducing water consumption across its European sites is a key element of Ardagh Group’s Sustainability Strategy, which has targeted a 26% water intensity reduction by 2030.
