Duncan, an active member of the National Packaging Task Force, posed a thoughtful question after reading the last issue of Glass Works (Vol. 9, No.1, 1998) We thought you would appreciate the emailed Q & A from Doug Symington and Duncan.
"I had a chance to read your new issue of Glass Works and had a question. The bar graph on page 2 shows a drop in Consumers' use of post-consumer, post-use cullet from the high of 1994. The graph on page 5 shows a similar and presumably related drop in recycled content. Can you tell me what's behind these numbers? The drop in recycled use from `94 to `96 seems pretty significant; approximately 70K tonnes/year."
Thanks for your note and questions. Firstly, you are correct - the charts on pages 2 and 5 are related. We calculate recycled content (page 5, vol. 9, #1, 98) by dividing our use of post-consumer, post-use cullet (page 2, vol. 9, #1, 98) by our production of packed tonnes of glass. Since our annual packed tonnes does vary, the recycled content follows the same directional trend as the use of cullet to the total production.
Secondly, indeed our cullet use dropped after 1994. However, it is a bad news, good news story. While Consumers use of cullet was declining, it was a reflection of the non-container endmarkets for recycled glass that were becoming viable and commercial by the mid 1990's. In particular, the fiberglass industry has become a major user of bottle cullet in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta. As well, recycled glass has become a commodity in the real sense. Recycled glass is now moving across the border quite regularly - in both directions. The economics of shipping a low value material long distances to a Consumers plant are now changed to the glass being used for local industry uses. As described in the two Saskatchewan stories in Glass Works, glass makes an ideal aggregate substitute for road and construction applications. There are over 60 non-container applications for recycled glass identified by a study done by the Clean Washington Center, so there is no shortage of possibilities. So, while Consumers Glass is using less cullet it is only because there are many other markets and uses for the material. The bottom line is the really good news story -- less glass going to disposal and local markets are being developed and economics and the environment both benefit.
Thanks for the question.
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