Glass industry leaders from the Ardagh Group, Owens-Illinois (O-I) and Verallia Germany discussed closed loop recycling for glass packaging during a debate hosted by FEVE – the European Container Glass Federation.
Ardagh CEO Niall Wall, O-I Europe CEO Erik Bouts and Verallia Germany CEO Stefan Jaenecke were joined by European Parliament and European Commission delegates in the discussion 'Circular economy: A waste of time or a time for waste?'
The answer was clear: the time has come to dramatically turn waste into a valuable resource as a key pillar of a competitive EU circular economy.
The industry leaders encouraged the European Commission to develop a more friendly legislative framework that would acknowledge the superiority of materials which, once produced, become permanent resources to be reused infinitely to generate new products without quality loss.
EU policy makers argued that efforts had been made in implementing the EU 2020 strategy but said work was needed by stakeholders to ensure the ‘circular economy’ was not reduced to a trendy social media hash tag but actually becomes a mindset that informs all business models.
Approximately 120 people were invited to yesterday’s event held in the centre of Brussels. Guests included glass manufacturers, EU policy makers and packaging companies.
A review of the event will appear in a forthcoming issue of Glass International.
Pictured The three industry leaders (left of photo) took part in a discussion on closed loop recycling last night at the FEVE Open Day
