Glass is essential to meeting a brighter future because it has endless applications,” says Paolo Giacobbo, President of Glass Alliance Europe and representing Assovetro the Italian National Glass Association, a founding member. “Today’s launch sees the glass industries in Europe coming together to work on sustainability issues and share resources to ensure glass continues to meet its potential”.
Glass is all around us at every moment of our lives and in each different way, glass makes a big contribution to fighting climate change. Glass is one essential element to enable Europe’s low carbon economy thanks to energy saving applications like insulating glass or reinforcement glass fiber composites to lighten vehicles and enable the use of wind rotor blades. Glass contributes to resource efficient societies by recycling 68% of all its glass jars and bottles in the EU. In this way the glass packaging sector helps reduce the amount of virgin raw materials, the energy needed to melt glass and CO2 emissions as well as ensuring that this waste is diverted from landfill.
Glass is also essential to many new technologies, like touch screen technologies enabling smart phones, and is a base for jewelry, architecture and buildings, while homes are full of designer glass and glass tableware.
“Sustainability is the main objective driving industries today and industries need to work across value chains and across sectors – not in isolation. Today the glass industry joins its sister sectors and national associations to work together and to share ideas on sustainability in this new Glass Alliance Europe and in doing so strengthens the glass industry’s ability to act together on climate change issues,” says Niall Wall President of FEVE, the Container Glass Association and founding member of the new alliance.
The alliance has a shared belief: The glass products needed for a low carbon, resource efficient and sustainable European future should be produced in Europe. The EU should take account of the positive role glass industries play in securing the EU’s sustainability objectives and so EU policies need to be guided by strong long-term environmental goals rather than by short-term fund raising potential.
In the coming months, Glass Alliance Europe will elaborate on this message to highlight the positive contributions of glass industries to the future of Europe.
Glass Industries Form New Alliance on Climate Change and Sustainability
Brussels, 29 May 2012: Today national glass associations and sectors join forces to create a new alliance to work on climate change and sustainability issues. “Glass is a substance that has no other match and the potential is huge.