SGD Pharma has announced a high performance rebuild of one of our two furnaces at the Saint-Quentin-Lamotte (SQLM) manufacturing plant in France. This rebuild is part of our ambitious global decarbonization strategy and will contribute to a two-thirds reduction in our total carbon emissions by 2040.

This project, which will cut the SQLM CO2 emissions by almost 20%, will have two phases that both reduce the consumption of natural gas while increasing the use of electricity on site.

The SQLM furnace rebuild accelerates the electrification of one of the two furnaces (yielding a 40% increase in electricity output), the other furnace already being 100% electric for many years. The project will also deliver a 50% reduction of gas consumption in the forehearths.

Scott DeFife, President of the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI), testified before the New York State Senate and Assembly Committees on Environmental Conservation, highlighting the benefits of proposed bottle bill legislation and voicing support for the efforts of State Senate Environmental Committee Chair Peter Harckham and Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Deborah Glick to usher this bill into law.

In the first half of 2023, Şişecam signed a letter of intent to invest in ICRON, a Turkish technology company that provides operational and strategic decision optimisation services. The company has now moved one step further with a partnership agreement.

With this partnership, which is Şişecam's first investment in the field of software technologies, the company aims to grow with ICRON, and take its operational excellence and optimisation approach to its current operations to the next level. The strong digital infrastructure and its service quality that fully meets the needs of the day will also contribute to its financial performance over time.

Gerresheimer has again been awarded Gold status by EcoVadis. More than 100,000 companies worldwide turn to the ratings agency to assess their performance on environmental, labour and human rights, ethical, and sustainable procurement criteria. The company earned a spot in the top 5% of all companies assessed and the top 1% of the industry, and improved its score to 72 out of 100 points, despite the increasingly strict requirements from year to year.

A panel of well-respected judges throughout the packaging industry has selected the Stoelzle Glass Group as winners of the UK Packaging Awards 2023 Award in the category ‘Limited Edition of the Year’ for their outstanding work for the 54 Highland Park bottle. This significant award highlights the company’s ability to produce excellent glass packaging from start to finish. Their design and production team works closely with Highland Park and John Galvin Design, who designed and produced the stunning wooden box, which makes a significant contribution to the presentation of the bottle.

STL has entered into a long-term offtake agreement with Hygenco to build-own-operate the green hydrogen facility for the optical fibre preform manufacturer for 20 years. This facility will be based on renewable energy and commissioned in the next 15-18 months. It will be the very first green hydrogen project in India's optical industry and boost the company's “Net-Zero by 2030” ambition.

Şişecam met with key industry players at the World Soda Ash Conference as the main sponsor of the event. Company CEO Görkem Elverici shared it’s growth journey in the field of soda ash at the conference.

As Recycle Week celebrates its 20th anniversary this week (16–22 October), the glass industry is also celebrating 20 years of recycling progress in the UK, with double the amount of glass bottles and jars now being recycled by households.

According to UK Department for Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the glass recycling rate stood at 37.5% in 2003. This was the year when Tony Blair was still PM, Harry Potter fans were gobbling up Order of the Phoenix, superstar footballer Cristiano Ronaldo debuted for Manchester United and petrol was a mere £0.75/litre.

Fast forward 20 years and today’s latest available Defra figures show that a whopping 73.6% of glass packaging now finds it way back into the system, which helps to save energy and reduce CO2 emissions.

The Glass Industry with Fuel-Flexible Technology (GIFFT) project, a European Union-funded initiative aimed at transforming the glass industry’s sustainability landscape was launched at the Lithuanian Research Development and Innovation Liaison Office in Brussels. The meeting signified the beginning of a collaborative effort to revolutionise glass manufacturing.

Europe leads in glass production, but the industry’s high energy consumption and CO2 emissions present challenges. GIFFT aims to overcome these hurdles by developing a groundbreaking heat production technology. Utilising plasma-assisted combustion and gasification systems, the project will integrate bio-based solutions, such as biomass and waste, into glass manufacturing processes.