Solid waste | AGC Glass Europe

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Today, the amount of solid waste produced by the Group is around 240,000 tonnes/year, of which around 98% is further recycled or recovered on site by our suppliers or contractors.

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Further reduction in waste and greater recycling are leading principles in the management of our waste. Sending our waste to landfill is avoided as much as possible.

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In 2017, about 1% of the waste went to landfill.

In 2013, we launched a Going Green initiative, the “Zero to Landfill” Challenge for the primary operation plants, aimed at reducing the total waste volume and sending 0% waste to landfill. Additional options for reusing material were identified and implemented, positively affecting the management of resources (see for example in "Air", Waste Recycling from the DeSO_x).

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Fig. 14. Solid waste disposal treatments.

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Fig. 15 shows the amount of waste sent to landfill as a proportion of the glass produced by the group. Since 1998, the group has managed to reduce the quantity of production waste sent to landfill by 95% on a comparable basis!

Although further reduction of waste is mainly organised at plant level, AGC Glass Europe has centralised contracts with waste disposal companies in all countries. These service providers audit the plants on a regular basis, and have committed themselves to helping us find further possibilities for reduction and recycling.

AGC Glass Europe Sustainability & Product Stewardship Department also initiates central research activities in order to increase the amount of reuse or recycling of specific waste streams (see “Recycling”).

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Fig. 15: Quantity of waste sent to landfill as a proportion of the glass produced by the group