As a natural material, glass is a popular packaging choice for all kinds of foods and beverages. Not only does it make fruit preserves, pickled vegetables and mineral water look more appetising, it offers another unbeatable advantage compared to other packaging materials: it preserves flavour and freshness, and it does not affect the original taste or purity of the product it contains. Technically speaking, glass is inert, which means it does not interact with its content. This is what makes it so unique. Consumers also appreciate this special property of glass. According to a pan-European survey conducted by InSites Consulting on behalf of the European Container Glass Federation FEVE in 2014, glass packaging for foods and beverages is particularly popular with consumers. There were three main reasons for this. Glass packaging preserves the original flavour of the content, it is safe for human health, and it is environmentally friendly.
The German container glass industry has 12 independent companies with around 9,000 employees in Germany. Many container glass manufacturers are global players with production facilities that manufacture all kinds of glass packaging products in Germany, other European countries and the USA. This sector’s production figures show that the German container glass industry is the biggest in Europe.
The Container Glass Trade Section unites the German container glass manufacturers and represents the sector-wide interests of the container glass industry.
The German glass industry manufactures a wide variety of container glass products, and not just for the food and beverage industry. Thousands of different kinds of glass packaging products are used by the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries – from perfume bottles over glass jars for face creams to medicine bottles; the container glass industry is constantly evolving. Increasingly lightweight glass bottles and UV-resistant white glass are just two examples of what an innovative material glass is. Additionally, glass is incredibly versatile, which is one of its main advantages over other packaging materials.
Aktionsforum Glasverpackung is an initiative of the German container glass industry that was founded in order to analyse trends and provide comprehensive information about glass packaging and its properties to all participants in the “glass cycle”. Aktionsforum Glasverpackung’s communications target the beverages, food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, retailers, consumers, and the waste disposal industry. It also answers questions from the media on glass as a packaging material.
For further information please visit www.glasaktuell.de
Glass is 100 percent recyclable and as such, makes a significant contribution to protecting the environment, as it is manufactured on a cradle-to-cradle or closed loop basis. Waste glass is the most important raw material for making new glass packaging. On average, around 60 percent of every bottle consists of “old” glass and in some coloured bottles, it can even be as much as 90 percent. Glass can also be melted down an infinite number of times to create new, high quality glass packaging without any loss of quality.
Very few other packaging materials are infinitely recyclable. Glass recycling requires a sophisticated collection and returns system for used glass containers. There are over 250,000 used glass container collection points in Germany, which are used by 97 percent of all German households. They enable every citizen to make an active contribution to saving raw materials, energy, waste, and to closing the recycling loop.
For further information please visit www.was-passt-ins-altglas.de.