The Society of Glass Technology is running a special conference devoted to ‘Raw materials for glassmaking’ in Cambridge, UK on 1-4 September 2019. The conference will feature dedicated sessions on particular glass ingredients, as well as the batch as a whole.

The Gerresheimer Group has commissioned the world’s first partial-flow exhaust air purification system at its Essen site in Germany. This will ensure that the glass manufacturer’s existing system complies with the stringent clean gas values that apply after a furnace replacement. The cost-efficient solution is based on the Ecopure CCF developed by Dürr Systems AG.

British Glass, representative body of the UK glass industry, has responded to the UK Government’s announcement of a consultation on a major overhaul of the country’s waste disposal system. This would make packaging producers pay the full cost of dealing with their waste, make local authorities collect rubbish in the same way in each area and bring in a deposit return scheme for bottles and cans. 

“As an industry, we are fully committed to recycling” said Dave Dalton, Chief Executive of British Glass. “Glass is a natural and pure material that can be reused an infinite number of times. However, recycling and collecting used bottles and jars is a very complex area and we are currently talking in detail with a wide range of stakeholders on the issue.”

Although the €2416 million revenue figure reported in Verallia’s 2018 annual results is down 2.3% year-on-year, at constant exchange rates and excluding IFRS15 impact, a solid 5.7% revenue growth was achieved. This growth was driven by volume/mix improvements, supported by sales price increases necessary to mitigate rising energy costs and other inflationary impacts. In Europe, revenue fell by 0.3% but increased by 3.8% year-on-year. Growth was driven by volume/mix improvement and higher selling prices in all countries. In South America, revenue fell by 17.1% due to the negative foreign exchange rate variations essentially coming from Argentina.

FEVE’s latest industry data on recycling confirms that over 12 million tons of glass bottles and jars are collected and recycled in Europe, with an average 74% glass recycling rate in the EU28. According to FEVE, this figure should be set to rise. With the circular economy now at the forefront of the political agenda, EU Member States have committed to ambitious targets on municipal waste reduction and glass packaging recycling. This signals a renewed investment in separate collection for glass packaging in the coming years, which will engage consumers, municipalities, extended producer responsibility schemes, recyclers and manufacturers in a collaborative effort to collect, sort and treat the glass that is currently leaking from the system.

Frigoglass will invest €25-30 million to expand furnace capacity at the Beta Glass Guinea plant, located at Agbara, Ogun state. The project will increase glass container production capacity at the Nigerian plant by 35,000 tons/year by replacing an existing furnace that has reached the end of its life, the addition of an extra production line and upgrades to existing production equipment, as well as the acquisition of advanced inspection technology to strengthen the plant’s capabilities.

British Glass recently facilitated a visit with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to flat glass manufacturer Saint-Gobain UK. Eleven members of the BEIS team, including Deputy Director for Energy Intensive Industries Rory Wallace and Deputy Head of Energy Intensive Industries Carolyn Campbell visited the Eggborough site to gain an insight to the industry. They were joined by members of the British Glass environment team and Technical Director Nick Kirk and hosted by British Glass President and Managing Director of Saint-Gobain UK, Steve Severs.

Speaking to the trade magazine Premium Beauty News, Carl-August Heinz, owner and CEO of German glassmaker Heinz-Glas confirmed that his group has acquired land near Shanghai to build another glassworks. This follows an announcement last October that the Saverglass flaconnage business in France has been purchased.

The Kioo glass container factory in Dar es Salaam, has commissioned P-D Refractories to supply materials for its K2 furnace rebuild later this year. This follows the glassmaker’s K1 furnace project, which was successfully commissioned in 2018. Both furnaces are SORG designs. Refractory products will be sourced from P-D Refractories sites in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Supplying a diverse range of glass packaging in different colours to such customers as AB InBev, Coca-Cola and Heineken, Kioo Ltd makes a significant contribution to the sustainable economic and ecological development of Tanzania.