A new report from the consulting team at Valpak for British Glass has highlighted the benefits of glass packaging being collected and recycled through an improved kerbside scheme rather than a deposit return scheme (DRS).
The report is based on data from the Welsh Government blueprint model for glass collection, which British Glass said has been proven to deliver a glass collection rate of close to 90%.
The report found that recycling all glass packaging through improved, consistent kerbside collections (as outlined in DEFRA’s proposals for a well-designed scheme of EPR and funded via the principal of ‘producer pays’) is the most effective and efficient recycling solution for glass, from both an environmental impact and householder convenience.
British Glass said that due to the likelihood that glass will be intentionally broken in a DRS to save space – resulting in small glass particles – more glass will be unsuitable for remelt and will be used for aggregate. Valpak’s impact assessment shows 11% more carbon savings will be delivered by keeping glass at the kerbside in comparison to a DRS, with cumulative total savings of over 2 million tonnes of CO2 by 2035 through the model.
Valpak Consulting’s impact assessment estimates that the carbon benefit when using recycled glass instead of virgin material to make new glass bottles and jars is 579.58kg CO2e per 1 tonne of product. This carbon benefit drops to 4.56kg CO2e per 1 tonne when using recycled glass instead of virgin material for use in aggregate products, which is therefore less sustainable.
The assessment states that if glass is included in a DRS, there will be no regulation to ensure the current remelt target is maintained and exceeded in future years to protect closed loop recycling. By contrast, Valpak’s assessment assumes that a high proportion of the glass collected from households under an improved, consistent kerbside scheme would be suitable for remelt.
