Glass Packaging company Expands recycling Program

The multinational Owens-Illinois (O-I), glass packaging manufacturer, and the sustainability startup for Waste Polen signed a partnership that will allow the expansion of the use of shards in the production of new packaging. Through a marketplace focused on the purchase and sale of waste, the manufacturer can quickly and without a larger volume of recyclable input. The objective is that together, the four O-I factories in Brazil capture at least 500 tonnes of additional caco per month. The plants are distributed in São Paulo (1), Rio de Janeiro (1) and Pernambuco (2). The capture of shards is one of the challenges that the industry faces today for the recycling and manufacture of new glass packaging from those discarded. The glass does not suffer losses during the recycling process, that is, a kilo of Caco becomes a kilo of new glass, with less energy use, which makes the process even more sustainable. "The production from the Caco is clean and generates gains for the manufacturer, for customers and for the planet. As market leaders, we are also the largest buyer of shards in the country and we have the capacity to buy even more, "says Lúcia Moreira, sustainability coordinator at O-I. Industry data shows that every 10% of the shards used, the energy consumption is reduced by about 3%, while CO2 emissions fall 5% compared to the production of packaging from Virgin raw materials. "The use of the Polen platform is an important step towards achieving our global recycling goal, which is to reach 50% of the production of packaging originating from shards up to 2025. Currently, 30% of our packaging is made from recycled glass. This new partnership will help us to overcome one of the great barriers to recycling glass today, which is the transportation of the pieces to our factories, "says Lúcia Moreira. Renato Paquet, founder and CEO of Polen, says that the process of selling and buying Caco by the recyclers will gain agility: "Our business transforms waste into opportunity. We unite generators that seek to sell their waste and buyers who demand these inputs, be they of small, medium or large size ". After the purchase, the delivery of the shards will be made at the O-I factory closest to the issuing site, by cooperatives and companies homologated by the startup. The new partnership adds to other O-I actions for glass recycling. Currently, the company conducts a socio-environmental project at Complexo da Mangueira, in Rio de Janeiro, in which it rewards with basic baskets the residents who sell up to 500 kilos of used glass packaging. He is also a partner in Diageo's Glass Is Good project, in which brand packaging collected by commercial establishments in several regions of Brazil are destined for recycling in the O-I. In the last year, the industry has also begun a partnership with the Ecozinha Institute to capture packaging discarded by bars and restaurants in the Federal district. In addition, O-I purchases shards from various recycling cooperatives and community organizations close to their manufacturing units.