North America has a rich glass-making history with records dating back to 1608, a year after Virginia was founded, when a glasshouse was built near Jamestown. This is historically recorded as the first glass factory in the English colonies in the USA. Glass shipped to the UK was among the first exports of the colony and over the years, more glasshouses developed. Pittsburgh, PA became the centre of the glass manufacturing industry, largely because there was an abundance of coal, which was used as fuel in glass-making from 1796 for over a century. According to the GPI, the US trade association representing the container glass industry, the container sector is worth around US$ 5.5BN today, employing approximately 18000 people in 49 glass manufacturing plants spread across 22 States. This article provides an overview of the industry as it stands today.
