AGC & Reiling accelerate automotive circularity with a breakthrough in windshield Flat-to-Flat recycling

AGC Glass Europe now recycles assembled windshields on top of industrial cutting losses, proving the technology for a fully circular automotive glass economy and supporting the production of its automotive glass with over 56% cullet ratio. 

AGC Glass Europe, in collaboration with its long-standing flat glass recycling partner Reiling, is proud to announce an advancement in its flat glass circularity program. 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. This breakthrough proves the industrial scale viability of a process to remelt glass from windshields in a closed, flat-to-flat loop to produce new automotive glass, marking a necessary step forward for sustainability in the automotive sector.

From architectural to automotive leadership

While AGC Glass Europe with its Recycle Glass service has long been an active player in recycling pre-consumer & post-consumer flat glass from the architectural sector, the company is now leveraging its expertise for the automotive industry. As a major producer of automotive glass, AGC handles significant volumes of waste from its entire product range—from cutting losses to fully assembled components for windshields, side windows, backlites, and even panoramic or photovoltaic roofs.
This new initiative first targets the complex challenge of recycling pre-consumer assembled windshields. However, the proven concept developed opens the door to tackling the much larger waste stream of post-consumer windshields from vehicle repairs and end-of-life vehicles, which are generated in the hundreds of thousands of tons annually in Europe.

A technical breakthrough in windshield recycling

Until recently, the glass cullet recovered from windshields were not used in the industrial production of new car windows. Thanks to state-of-the-art processing techniques and efficient separation of contaminants – such as PVB interlayers, plastic coatings, metal wiring, and electronic components – the range of applications has now been expanded to include another high-quality use.

Through collaboration between AGC's R&D department and our long-standing partner Reiling, a German-based flat glass recycling specialist, AGC has validated a robust protocol to treat and consume these windshields in our float furnaces. Reilings’ specialized recycling  process effectively separates the high-quality glass from contaminants, yielding the pure cullet fraction that meets the stringent specifications for producing new automotive float glass at plants like AGC Retenice (CZ). The quality, safety, and performance of the resulting windshields are identical to those made from virgin raw materials.

"Our collaboration with Reiling has led to a significant achievement: turning assembled windshield waste back into new windshields on an industrial scale. This is a testament to our common ability to innovate and transform end-of-life windshields into a high-value resource for our automotive glass production. We are steadily increasing the use of this recycled material and learning how to optimize the process further. The path to making this process economically competitive with traditional materials is a challenge we are actively addressing, but this success story is a clear signal that the future of glass, also post-consumer windshields is circular"
— Marc Foguenne VP Sustainability AGC Glass Europe

Driving measurable environmental impact

The benefits of this initiative are substantial. By maximizing the use of cullet from both cutting losses and recycled windshields, AGC can achieve over 56% cullet-to-virgin raw material ratio in its automotive glass production furnace (2025 average cullet ratio AGC Retenice, CZ).
The environmental impact is significant:

• Every ton of cullet used saves up to 0.7 tons of CO₂.
• Every ton of cullet saves 1.2 tons of virgin resources like sand and soda ash.

In 2025, a collaboration between our AGC Retenice facility, our automotive processing local teams in Chuderice, Tatabanya, and Koszalin, and our partners at Recycle Glass service allowed us to successfully incorporate tens of thousands of tons of pre-consumer cullet into our production, mostly cutting losses. 

„The implementation of recycled automotive cullet is another step for us to increase the % of cullet in production. After evaluating the first samples and confirming the quality of recycled cullet we proceeded to introduce cullet into production. Separate storage and regular dosing allow us to continuously control the resulting quality of glass. We are pleased that we were able to become even more involved in the circularity of flat glass.“
Jiří Kurčík, production manager AGC Teplice

Building on this success, as of 2026, AGC has set an ambitious goal to add to this the collection and treatment of more than 300,000 pre-consumer assembled windshields – thus creating a new circularity standard for the industry. As part of the high-quality processing of our automotive glass, our partner Reiling also utilises all non-glass components, such as PVB, plastics, and metals, in their respective recycling streams.

"The use of recycled glass cullet from pre-consumer windscreens is an excellent addition to the range of high-quality applications for this material stream. Reusing cullet in automotive glass production is a challenging task, as the quality requirements for the cullet in this melting process are extremely high. Together with our long-standing partner AGC, we have now successfully realised this goal and can jointly make a significant contribution to resource conservation and environmental protection."
— Marc Uphoff, Managing Director Reiling Glas Recycling GmbH & Co. KG

Looking ahead: a new standard for Europe 

This success relies on a clean and dedicated collection stream. Having perfected the process with our own pre-consumer sources, we have established the foundation to expand flat-to-flat circularity. The next logical step is to apply this proven process to post-consumer windshields from the automotive windshield replacement, aftermarket and end-of-life vehicle sectors.
With this breakthrough, AGC is not only advancing its own decarbonisation roadmap but is also setting a new benchmark for the entire European automotive industry, proving that a sustainable, circular economy for automotive glass is achievable today.

Discover how you can contribute to circular glass recycling: learn more about AGC Recycle Glass.