British Glass hosts UK glass recycling summit 2022

The virtual event brought together the entire glass supply chain in a collaborative effort to continue to drive up glass recycling rates in the UNUnited Nations’ International Year of Glass (IYOG) Dave Dalton, CEO of British Glass opened the day with a video entitled ‘This is glass’, developed to highlight the belief that if glass waswere a new product t oday, it would be the packing of the future - its benefits and environmental credentials just get lost in its history.

Attendees then heard a pre- recorded message from Jo Churchill MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), where she thanked British Glass and the wider glass industry for their continued engagement with Governmentgovernment on packaging reforms.

Prof. Alicia Durran, Chair of the IYOG, talked about how glass as a material is moving in the right direction and that we are entering a new more transparent, more sustainable ‘Aage of glass’.

During the panel session, panelists were offered the chance to speak on progress over the last year to achieve our 90% by 2030 target and recycling and sustainability ambitions before questions were taken from the floor.

Finally, the wider group was diveddelved into breakout sessions where attendees were asked to challenge themselves and others to think about where they want glass to be in 2050 and beyond and consider how we might begin to achieve that today.

Philip Fenton, Packaging Lead at British Glass commented:

“It was fantastic to  bring the whole glass supply chain together once again for the UK Glass Recycling Summit to work towards our industry goal of achieving a 90% collected for recycling target by 2030.”

“We got were able to hear from glass manufacturers, recyclers, brand owners and more on progress made over the last year and to look ahead to what we need to do going forward.”

“With 2022 marking the United Nations International Year of Glass, it was a fantastic opportunity to really consider where, as an industry, we are heading, the role glass has tomust play in our society and future circular economies, and how we together, we can make glass the material of choice in 2050.”