At a recent web conference hosted by FEVE, the European Container Glass Federation, Member of European Parliament (MEP) Kathleen van Brempt stressed the importance of sustainable operations in light of the forthcoming European policy on recycling.

“The glass industry is in a strong starting position when it comes to recycling,” said Mrs van Brempt. “Its attention to recycling and re-use of both materials and energy is promising. The Belgian experience with glass recycling shows that there is no reason why ‘closing the loop’ of the glass production cycle should not be possible on the EU-level. I hope this will be an example for others,” she added.

President of FEVE, Niall Wall, welcomed Mrs van Brempt’s focus on recycling and reinforced its benefits: “Glass can be recycled without loss of quality over and over again,” he said.

Mr Wall opened the conference with a presentation on the environmental sustainability and cradle-to-cradle life cycle of glass. “The glass container industry makes a valuable contribution to sustainability by preventing and reducing environmental pollution and protecting consumer health,” he said. “A multi-use returnable bottle, for example, may be used over 40 times, reducing its CO2 impact significantly and the energy saved by recycling a single bottle could power a computer for 25 minutes.”