Glass for Europe welcomes EP committee move to incentivise initiatives in building glass recycling

Glass for Europe, the trade association of the flat glass sector, which manufactures energy saving technologies for the building, transport and solar-energy sectors, welcomes the adoption by the European Parliament’s ENVI Committee of its proposals to improve the Circular Economy Package.

Glass for Europe considers that the reports rightly address longstanding bottlenecks in the recycling of building glass.

The vast majority of end-of-life building glass, used in windows and façades, is not properly sorted at source in Europe which renders its recycling in new glass products difficult.

To increase the recycling rates of its products and manufacturing sustainability, Glass for Europe commissioned a study to Deloitte Sustainability on the present situation in the management and recycling of end-of-life building glass in Europe.

Bertrand Cazes, Secretary General of Glass for Europe, comments: ‘This study provided many findings which helped us identifying the necessary conditions to render the recycling of building glass both environmentally and economically viable across Europe’s regions’.

Glass for Europe welcomes suggestions endorsed by the European Parliament’s ENVI Committee yesterday when they address the identified bottlenecks and create conditions for new recycling initiatives to emerge.

For instance, Glass for Europe supports the incentive to generalise pre-demolition audits and the call on a harmonisation of the status of by-products. However, Glass for Europe regrets the lack of support for initiatives aiming at granting free access to container parks to professionals.

‘Although we do realise that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the recycling of building glass in Europe, this report gives a signal to the construction and demolition, recycling and glass industries that concrete solutions need to be developed locally’, stresses Bertrand Cazes.

In this respect, Glass for Europe welcomes the call for introducing recycling targets for construction and demolition waste, and that Member States are asked to develop measures to ensure sorting of building glass.