Recycling of Glassfrom Construction & Building
Demolition Waste
Views from the flat glass industry

Niels Schreuder
Public Affairs

AGC Glass Europe

AGC corporate profile

AGC Glass Europe

AGC Group – a global company

Global annual sales: more than €11bn
Approx 50,000 employees
More than 200 companies all over the world
Headquarters in Tokyo
Quoted on Tokyo Stock Exchange

AGC Glass Europe

AGC Group – a global player in different industries

Flat Glass
Automotive Glass
Display

AGC Glass
GLASS UNLIMITEDAGC Electronics

Electronics
Chemicals
AGC Glass Europe

AGC Glass Europe at a glance•Building, automotive and solar sector•

No. 1 in the Benelux, Russia and Central Europe•

HQ and R&D Center (Belgium)•130 plants•

Leader in advanced glassproducts•EuropeanHQ

Large sales network
R&DCentre•

13,500 employees•

1,8 billion € sales (* 2009)
ProductionSales
AGC Glass Europe

What do we do ?
Delivering solutions for climate change …
Our top priorities are energy …
… saving
glass products… generating
glass productsHouse & Building
insulation

Solar glasssolutions

Daylight & free solar
gain… efficientmanufacturing
processes… efficienttransport means(multimodal)

Hotox process:minus 25% CO2

Train and vessel
containers = 5600
trucks less on theroad

AGC Glass Europe

Recycling views

AGC Glass Europe

What is Recycling?
EC Definition:“recycling means any recovery operation by whichwaste materials are reprocessed into products,
materials or substances whether for the original orother purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic
material but does not include energy recovery and thereprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels
or for backfilling operations; ….“Directive 2008/98/EC, Article 3
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste… so not «downcycling».
AGC Glass Europe

Recycling: current EU regulatory
framework
Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) establishes
specific targets for the re-use and recycling of building
waste, including glass. Defines high levels of recycling
as key for Europe’s resource efficiency.
A 70% target for re-use, recycling, and recovery applies to C&D waste
in general.
The target can be achieved without glass recycling since glass
represents less than 1% of C&D waste.

Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) is the milestone in EU
waste policy.
Aim: shift from landfill to the EU's waste hierarchy.
No specific glass measures: as an inert material it is however easy
and relatively cheap to send glass to landfills, which does NOT favour
the upgrade of glass recycling.
AGC Glass Europe

Potential of Building Flat Glass
Recycling
Total Quantities per year
Construction & Demolition Waste Material: 340 mio T
0,66 %

Potential Flat Glass: 2,25 mio Tonnes
25 %Collected Glass waste: 0,6 mio Tonnes?

Recycled Glass: ??? Tonnes

Eurostat, EU27 - 2010

AGC Glass Europe

Advantage of recycling C&D
waste glass into flat glass
Respect waste treatment hierarchy
Safe energy
3.000 TJ*

Safe CO2600 000 T CO2*

Safe non renewable
raw materials
2,4 mio tonnes** Based on recycling 90% of potential C&D waste glass

AGC Glass Europe

Available end-of-life building
flat glass
Glazing in buildings comes in many forms depending on
the building type, the frames and frame materials used, theinstallation period and the locations (construction code).
There are roughly 3 categories:
Glazing from large building (facades)
Glazing from residential collective buildings andindividual houses (generally integrated in windows)
Glass used for interior applications (balustrades, glasswalls, mirrors, etc.)
AGC Glass Europe

Post - Consumer Glass INDUSTRIAL
WINDOW MAKERS

DEMOLITIONCONTAINER PARK

CLEAN GLASSDIRTY GLASSVERY DIRTY GLASS

Landfill

Backfilling

Down-cycling
AGC Glass Europe

The Recycling Route
Collection and recycling of end-of-life building flat glass
We see the following steps in the process:
1.

2.

3.
4.
5.
6.

Dismantling of the window, glazing or other flat glass
products from the building
Collection of the dismantled window, glazing or other flatglass productsSegregation of the glass from the window
Treatment to remove pollutants from glass
Recycling in glass furnaces
Logistic networks from building site to glass furnace
AGC Glass Europe

Flat Glass Recycling
Industrial vs Domestic sources
Industrial = from factories
Widely used in flatglass industry

Domestic = Post-consumer glass
Today, not usedin flat glass

findcullet

collect

recycleusecullet
AGC Glass Europe

Flat Glass Quality requirement
Flat glass is highly sensitive to ceramic, stone, porcelain.
5 gr CSP per 1 Tonne cullet is too much.

Very hard to achieve float quality from polluted cullet
AGC Glass Europe

Keeping Cullet Clean
Keeping cullet clean is more efficient thancleaning dirty cullet.

DismantlingSorting

TreatingAGC Glass Europe

Recycling flat glass to flat glass

AGC Glass Europe

Projects

AGC Glass Europe

REVALO Project - France
Recovery & recycling of “post-consumer cullet”

Financial support from the French Environment
and Energy Management Agency.
Coordinated by GTM/VINCI, with VEKA Recyclage, Veolia,
ISEL and AGC.
Aim: recycling windows from building renovation
Ensure cullet quality
Dismantling of windows.

Stacking the window in skip.

After recycling.

AGC Glass Europe

VRN – The Netherlands
Recycling of flat glass, a national scheme
Levy of €0.50 for every m2 of insulated glass
paid by producers and importers
Network of 300 collection points
400–600 temporary locations per year
Around 85 000 tonnes collected per year
Contract with glass recyclers forprocessing

http://www.vlakglasrecycling.nl

AGC Glass Europe

New policy

AGC Glass Europe

Europe’s ‘Resource Efficiency’
agenda
DG ENTR Forum on
Sustainable
Competitiveness of theConstruction Sector:
thematic group on
Sustainable Use ofNatural Resources

Review the Waste
legislation to look at how
new markets and better
recycling can contribute togrowth;

Sustainable Buildings
Initiative

European Innovation
Partnership for Raw
Materials

Waste Framework Directive(2008/98/EC)
Landfill Directive(1999/31/EC)

AGC Glass Europe

Suggestions for the revision of theEU policy instruments …
To promote the dismantling, collection, andrecycling of building glass
Financial incentive
Contribution to kick-start a self supporting scheme
Government or EU support
Legal framework
Ban recyclable flat glass from landfill
Mandatory dismantling
Review key targets
AGC Glass Europe

Suggestions for the revision of theEU policy instruments …
Waste Framework Directive, including:-Recycling targets for glass
Mandatory dismantling
EU guidelines
National waste management plans

Landfill Directive, including:-Ban on landfill deposit of recyclable glass

Or do we need a Construction & Demolition
Waste Directive ?
AGC Glass Europe