Italian-based Vetreco's production plant recently opened and, due to an investment of 17M/Euros in closed loop recycling technology, over 10% of post-consumer waste glass collected in Italy can now be re-melted into new glass containers. The company was established in 2010 as a joint venture between Zignago Vetro, Ardagh Group Italy, and Saint-Gobain Vetri, reprocessing raw glass cullet in to cullet suitable for re-melt. The plant in Supino, has production capacity of 200,000/tpa, which is equivalent to around 10% of the annual cullet recycled in Italy. The company is able to reprocess cullet to the highest standards of colour separation, a change from the current situation in Italy, where mixed cullet batches supplied for use in furnaces are only suitable for the production of green containers or partially coloured flint glass. This new investment will now secure the supply of clear flint cullet, and as a result will lead to higher recycling rates that will benefit both the industry and the environment. Owing to this investment, it is expected that 70% of all the glass containers produced in Italy will be made from recycled glass. Furthermore, producing a bottle using recycled cullet uses approximately 10% less melting energy compared with the equivalent container that uses virgin raw materials.
