Increasing the circularity of flat glass does not only mean to collect glass cullet from internal and pre- consumer processes. It also means to use glass cullet from the post- consumer applications, such as residential or commercial buildings. The flat glass industry is currently in a transformation phase to reduce their CO2 emissions. For reducing the carbon emissions generated during the production of float glass a holistic approach is applied. Among these, one of the pillars is the increased use of cullet. Cullet comes from different sources: internal cullet, pre- and post- consumer cullet. In order to be able to use cullet in float glass production, it must be of an acceptable quality. Since there are a large number of glass products and glass types, it is essential to collect as many different types as possible. Furthermore, inspired by the waste hierarchy triangle there might be also another opportunity for glass, that is re-use. In the field of insulated glazing, re-use would mean to disassemble the product and re-use (or actually re-manufacture) the individual glass sheet to make a new product. This leads to an approach, which we call “re-manucycling”. This approach brings a lot of new challenges to the glass industry, but also an opportunity for reducing the CO2 footprint of the glass industry.
Michael Elstner
Advancing Circularity: Case Studies in Flat Glass Recycling
Company: AGC Glass Europe, Germany
About the speaker:
Michael Elstner works for AGC Glass Europe, where he is responsible for the Technical Advisory Service in Europe. As part of this role, he is also the contact person for sustainability and recycling of glass. Previously, he headed the INERPANE Consulting Centre at AGC INTERPANE for almost 20 years and was an authorised signatory at INTERPANE Entwicklungs- und Beratungsgesellschaft.
Having qualified as a glazier in 1994, he has worked in the glazing trade and later in the glass industry itself. He has also completed further professional qualifications as a master glazier and as a technical engineer for glass structures. Since 2014, he has been an officially recognised expert in the field of glazing and glass in construction.
He is a member of several national and international associations and standardisation committees, including the board of the Bundesverband Flachglas e.V., the Gütegemeinschaft Flachglas e.V. and the ift Rosenheim. He is also chairman of the ‘Climate and Sustainability’ working group at the Bundesverband Flachglas e.V. and head of the sustainability working group at the Fachverband konstruktiver Glasbau e. V.
