Using more cullet brings three key benefits:
- It saves raw materials: 1 tonne of cullet saves 1.2 tonnes of virgin materials, limiting the environmental impact of their extraction.
- It saves energy: Cullet requires less energy to (re)melt than virgin raw materials, so a 10% increase in cullet use can reduce furnace energy consumption by about 2.5%.
- It reduces CO2 emissions: Recycling 1 tonne of cullet avoids up to 0.7 tonnes of CO2, by saving energy and avoiding the decarbonation of virgin raw materials (direct and indirect emissions).
This commitment supports the production of glass with significantly less embodied carbon, like for example our Low-Carbon Glass range.
The average cullet ratio in our raw materials was about 30% in 2021. AGC Glass Europe aims to increase the cullet ratio to 50% by 2030.
Flat to Flat closed loop recycling
To achieve the objectives for flat glass in a climate-neutral Europe, a greater input of cullet is identified as one of the major routes to reduce CO2 emissions from manufacturing. It is therefore in our, and in the common interest of the flat glass industry, that an increased quantity of cullet returns to our sector in a closed-loop ‘flat glass to flat glass’ model. The sector’s goal is to promote this closed loop whenever possible and limit downcycling into lower-value glass applications.
Using high-purity recycled glass (cullet) is a key part of our strategy to reduce CO2 emissions and advance sustainable manufacturing. While we are ready to incorporate more cullet into our production, the process for creating high-quality float glass requires that it is completely free of contaminants. This stringent specification means that much of the currently available glazing waste is unsuitable. To overcome this hurdle and meet our environmental goals, we are pioneering new routes and technologies for sourcing pure, uncontaminated cullet.
Three routes of recycling flat glass cullet
In cullet we distinguish 3 types of routes:
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Furnace Process Cullet: This is glass waste generated during the melting manufacturing process itself, such as from color changes, edge trimmings, or production defects. It can be immediately reused in the furnace on-site with no treatment.
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Pre-Consumer Cullet: This type of cullet consists of glass scraps and losses from processing operations like cutting, laminating, or coating, assembling all of which occur before the glass becomes a final product. In some cases, this cullet can be returned directly to the furnace without needing additional treatment.
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Post-Consumer Cullet: This is glass waste from finished products. It includes glass from sources like building renovations, vehicle windshield replacements, or damaged PV panels. This type of glass typically requires advanced treatment and sorting to be processed into high-quality cullet suitable for new flat glass production.
In 2021, our average cullet ratio was about 30%, with the majority sourced from our own furnace process cullet. To achieve our ambitious goal of a 50% cullet ratio by 2030, we must shift our focus toward diverse sources and significantly increase the volume of pre-consumer and post-consumer (end-of-life) cullet in our production mix.
To address this issue and in the scope of the company’s Carbon Reduction Roadmap, AGC launched Recycle Glass, a program for delivering flat glass circularity .
What is AGC Recycle Glass?
Recycle Glass is AGC's service for collecting flat glass waste from industrial losses and from end-of-life projects, covering architectural, automotive, and specialty applications like PV cullet. This waste is then recycled and remelted into new, more sustainable, flat glass production. Recycle Glass also aims to share best practices in sorting and handling with all waste, deconstruction, renovation and glass transformation actors to enable a true circular loop.
Our mission is to create efficient, reliable, and adapted recycling flows for every type of flat glass, from various sources, qualities or complexities.
To make this possible, AGC Recycle Glass has a broad network of partners, including collaborators in logistics and transport; waste management and recycling; deconstruction and renovation; industrial transformation for architectural, automotive; PV glass recycling start-ups, and innovation from R&D centers and machine makers.
Watch the video "AGC Recycle Glass: delivering flat glass circularity".
How does a typical recycling journey look like ?
AGC Recycle Glass’ services and processes are tailored to the material and sources. This journey of post-consumer architectural glass illustrates our core approach :
- The process begins at the deconstruction site. After the window is removed, the frame is dismantled. To meet our strict quality standards, it is essential that the glazing is isolated from the frame and stored in a dedicated, glazing-only container (including spacer). AGC Recycle Glass can provide adapted containers via its partner network to ensure the collected material is pure from the start.
- The container containing the glass or the glazing is transported to a selected flat glass recycler if required. There, the glass is treated to separate the glass fraction from non-glass elements or last remaining pollutants to meet the stringent quality specifications required for new float glass production.
- We then direct the approved cullet to one of our closest flat glass production plants to be melted in the furnace. There, our teams apply rigorous quality control and traceability protocols to every pre - & post-consumer cullet source.
- Finally, a certificate is issued to the source and partner to assess the savings on material resources and CO2.
Circularity at the heart of the Oxy project
Immobel and its partner Whitewood have set very ambitious objectives when it comes to taking a sustainable approach towards the Oxy renovation project in Brussels. They conducted a full analysis of the building with a view to recycling or reusing as much as possible from the seventies-era building.
For the glazing they chose for AGC's Glass Recycle service. AGC worked with its recycling partner to collect and recycle the glazing removed from the façade by the customer’s deconstruction partner De Meuter. Finally, the cullet was transported to AGC Moustier’s plant to be reintroduced in the furnace and produce new flat glass with a reduced carbon footprint, Low-Carbon Glass.
The challenge of collecting End-of-Life flat glass
The ongoing renovation wave across Europe unlocks a vast potential source of cullet from existing buildings. To increase the use of end-of-life architectural cullet and support its operational, technical and financial feasibility, more Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Schemes are to be set up to assure the clean dismantling, collection, and recycling, particularly for building glass support flat-to-flat recycling.
In the Netherlands AGC helped to develop a national system of collection of flat glass from construction and demolition waste. Vlakglas Recycling Nederland (VRN) makes sure flat glass containers are available across the country to collect cullet. The system is financed through a tax on every m² of insulated glass produced or imported in the Netherlands. Cullet output is then sold by VRN. Initially main clients were glass container, glass wool and glass treatment companies. New agreements have been put in place to sell greater quantities to flat glass manufacturers.
In France, AGC partners with Valobat, a government-approved eco-organization for the EPR PMCB scheme in force since 2023. Together, we support the collection and recycling of end-of-life glazed joineries. AGC is also a signatory of the UFME charter, promoting best practices for high-quality waste management and sustainable recycling solutions.
Recycling other types of waste
Depending on the activities, various types of waste are produced by our plants. These include used refractories, sludge from wastewater treatment systems, waste oil from maintenance, ordinary trash from administration activities, etc. In line with the objective of avoiding landfill, for each production site we have implemented a progressive approach based on prevention, reuse, recycling, and incineration.
We have succeeded in recycling other types of waste in addition to glass cullet. For instance, most of the recycled sludge coming from wastewater treatment is now recycled in cement production.
More on our decarbonisation journey
AGC & Reiling accelerate automotive circularity with a breakthrough in windshield Flat-to-Flat recycling
The AGC Recycle Glass service, a comprehensive initiative for collecting and recycling flat glass waste, is now successfully recycling pre-consumer assembled automotive windshields on an industrial scale at Reiling's recycling locations..
Partnership AGC and SOLAR MATERIALS
AGC Glass Europe and SOLAR MATERIALS, a German cleantech startup specializing in the innovative recycling of photovoltaic (PV) panels, have entered into a strategic partnership that will focus on integrating high-purity recycled flat glass (cullet) recovered from end-of-life solar panels into AGC Glass Europe’s float glass production process.