La Foundation for sustainable development made a report, Recycling in Italy 2022, to evaluate the trend of the Italian recycling sector and aim at the full efficiency of the supply chain. To one general overview of the recycling industry, we will now try to support a more precise analysis of the glass sector.
The production of glass
The data collected by ASSOVETRO described a growing industry, with a production of approx 6 Mt and an increase of 9,4% compared to the previous year, also induced by the recovery of glass-related sectors, such as construction, food and wine.
However, the continuation of critical factors, including, in particular, the increase in the cost of raw materials and the supply difficulties, resizes the scenario, raising a big question mark on the future of the Italian glass industry, already conditioned by the challenges associated with the PNRR, decarbonisation and the new European rules of the Fit for 55 package.
The value of glassy cullet
To be able to overcome the challenges described above, the glass industry must invest in the reuse of glass cullet. The most relevant advantages of this virtuous practice of sustainability are found:
- in the reduction of the environmental impact associated with the production of glass;
- in the drop in emissions from glass melting furnaces;
- in the decrease of the mining activity, with a net reduction of the consumption of natural resources.
The availability of MPS
In fact, the waste recovery process makes it possible to use the secondary raw material (MPS) in the glassworks, instead of virgin raw materials, to produce new packaging. This operation originally requires aefficient separate collection. And, in this sense, the Italian glass recovery chain is among the best in its class. In fact, in 2021 he started recycling the 77% of packaging released for consumption, with approximately 2.2 Mt of glass packaging waste recovered, also thanks to the powerful efforts of the CoReVe Consortium.
The percentage reached is the result of a constant growth (by ben 38 percentage points), which from 1998 to 2021 favored the recycling of around 35 Mt of glass packaging waste.
The next goals
Almost all (97,5%) of the Italian population is directly involved in waste collection glass packaging. Despite this fact, to this day, still 400.000 tons of glass cullet are destined for landfills. Over the next few years, managing to intercept and recover even this last percentage of glass waste will be the main mission of the partnership between collection managers and municipalities.
However, the national glass supply chain has another limitation: the need to resort toimport of large quantities of glassy scrap (more than 230.000 t in 2021) to meet the demand of the manufacturing industry the packaging of glass. To deal with an increasing demand for secondary raw materials, it will therefore be necessary to develop further projects for the promotion and development of separate waste collection, such as the one between CoReVe and ANCI which we had discussed extensively , promising. Finally, in order to be able to meet the growing demand, the currently limited production of colorless MPS glass will have to be increased in order to expand the possibilities of absorbing the cullet on the Italian territory.
To find out all the data relating to glass recycling in Italy click here.
Source: ricicloinitalia.it
