"Closing the loop" is a simple enough phrase to say. The basic idea - to bring materials back to their point of origin is an easy enough concept to grasp. In the packaging industry there are a number of options, most do not favour a return to land as landfill:
A practical way of closing the loop for packaging materials is recycling. In the case of glass containers, recycling can occur after a one time use or, after multiple use. Multiple use occurs when the option to refill takes the glass container through several iterations before returning it to its point of origin.
Watching Kurt BrowningIt's like watching Kurt Browning performing a quadruple axle instead of a single axle; landing on the right spot is critical. Similarly, whether a glass container is refilled or makes one trip, landing back in the right spot is important; the glass container needs to be recycled to ensure the loop is closed.
While the market today provides for a number of landing spots, Consumers Glass prefers that its furnaces are the right spot; they act as the point of origin in closing the loop. However, success is not the sole decision or common sense plan of Consumers Glass.
As Kurt Browning, or any other Olympic performer
will tell you, there are many variables that affect performance, and the
audience has an influence on success. So too is the success or failure of
recycling influenced. The audience is defined as various stakeholders in
the recycling system; each of them has a role and a responsibility in closing
the loop, in making recycling a success.
The role of Consumers Glass is to provide a market for container glass, to ensure that it has `a landing spot' into a new glass container, hence the life cycle of the bottle is continuous. CG's responsibility is to make quality recyclable glass containers, over and over and over again.
Within the loop, Consumers Glass controls the production of recyclable glass containers and it has some control over processors through its supply agreements. The rest of the system operates outside this circle of control. See Diagram.
The partnership approach, started in 1990, focused on stakeholders in the system working counterclockwise. Many changes have occurred since 1990. There are fewer processors and their operations are far more sophisticated. All stakeholders are facing the need to be more efficient. Just as Kurt Browning wants an enthusiastic audience to cheer him onto a quadruple axle, Consumers Glass looks to broaden the stewardship approach started in 1990. Stewardship is a concept that many organizations and multi-stakeholders group are exploring.
The National Task Force on Packaging and the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment have adopted fourteen Guiding Principles for Packaging Stewardship. The principles call for the combined efforts of industry, government and consumers to take appropriate responsibility for packaging. Consumers Glass supports this effort. Now, are you ready for it?
My esteemed companion Webster reports that stewardship means "the individual's responsibility to manage his/her life and property with proper regard to the rights of others."
What does this mean in terms of Packaging and Product Stewardship?
It means - the moment you touch it you have accepted responsibility for it and for the management of its life for the period of time you retain contact. Like it or not, that's the fact Jack. However, acceptance of one's responsibility alone does not guarantee the results are successful.
Why?
Products are created by processes. No process is performed in isolation and as Mother Nature so poignantly pointed out in our last issue "everything you do has an impact on something and someone else." Therefore, a cooperative approach, a partnership within a systems perspective is essential.
How does Consumers Glass practice this partnered approach?
Consumers Glass adopted a partnership approach back in 1990 recognizing that Product Stewardship was necessary to ensure the return of glass containers for recycling. Refillables are a brand owner choice to reuse the same glass container within a closed loop before they are returned for recycling.
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