The main aim of this survey of the glass container industry is to answer the questions of what progress has been made over the last 24 years and how this progress has been brought about. This period was chosen because it allows comparisons to be made with the state-of-the-art before the first energy crisis of 1973. In that year the price of heavy fuel oil, generally used for making glass throughout Europe, rose by 300%. This dramatic increase hastened the general trend towards more efficient furnaces. The higher cost of energy is is, however, only one of several important factors that have influenced the industry over the same period. There has also been the continued competition from other materials, the replacement of returnable by one-way containers that are increasingly recycled as cullet and, more recently, the impact of environmental regulations.
