Glass packaging continues to improve market and sustainability performance. Despite high energy prices and stress on raw materials, Italian industry is increasing production capacity and investing in the environment. Assovetro gives an account of this in the preview of the Sustainability Report presented in Rome on 12.4.22. (1)
The virtues of glass packaging
Glass packaging represents excellence for food and beverage packaging. It does not release harmful substances to the contained food, unlike plastic, as we last saw for recycled PET. Nor does it disperse pollutant particles into the environment, as is the case with microplastics, which through diet and inhalation accumulate in the human body, all the way into the lungs.
Glass is also infinitely recyclable. And it displays the contents with an aesthetic unmatched by other food packaging materials. The only shortcoming is the weight, which, moreover, has been greatly reduced by the industry in recent decades.
Italy first European producer
Italy is Europe’s leading producer of glass packaging. The domestic industry – 14 companies with 39 plants, 7,800 employees and a turnover of 2.4 million euros – dominates the ranking with a 21.3 percent value share of production. This is followed by France (18 percent), Germany (17.6 percent), Spain and Poland, both with 8 percent.
The 2020-2024 forecast of the Italian glass industry shows an upward trend. The following are expected
– 500 new jobs,
– 5 more melting furnaces, with an investment of 400 million euros and an increase in production of 500 thousand tons of glass packaging per year,
– investments of 250 million euros a year in plant and machinery.
‘The sector, although under tremendous pressure due to rising prices of raw materials, transportation and energy, is committed to guaranteeing bottles and jars for producers of Italy’s excellent agri-food products and, for this reason, we have confirmed investments in expanding production capacity and designing new ovens‘, says Marco Ravasi, president of the hollow glass section of Assovetro, the National Association of Glass Manufacturers member of Confindustria.
Positive trend even in the crisis
Production has held its own in the crisis years. Bottles alone, a vehicle for the sought-after Made in Italy wines, reached 3 million tons (+6%) in the first 9 months of 2021 compared to 2020, and to meet the growing demand for bottles,imports increased by 20%.
On the other hand, in the first 9 months of 2021, the production of food pots declined by 6.6 percent, after the steady increase in the previous 5 years. In 2016, about 4 million tons of glass packaging was produced; in 2020, it will be more than 4.4 million tons.
Environmental performance
Environmental and social performance has also realized advancements: CO2 emissions per ton of molten glass show a steady decrease and, between 2016 and 2020, have dropped by 6.2 percent and 50 percent over the past 40 years.
Between 2019 and 2020 glass-environment ‘synergies’ have positive results: separate collection increased by 2.6 percent and recycling by 3.6 percent, and the recycling rate increased between 2019 and 2020 from 77.3 percent to 78.6, above the target European of 75 percent by 2030, while committing to reach 90 percent in 2030.
The social sustainability of Italian glass
The glass industry also qualifies for high social sustainability. At the end of 2020, Italian hollow and flat glass companies employed a total of 11,738 people, up 3.9 percent from 2016.
93.6 percent of workers are employed on permanent contracts, and the percentage rises to 96.7 percent when considering the workforce directly contracted by glassworks, i.e., net of workers employed on temporary contracts.
Marta Strinati
Notes
(1) Assovetro ‘s Sustainability Report involved 19 companies, 15 hollow glass and 4 flat glass manufacturers, which together represent 90 percent of the industrial presence in Italy.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
