Global Package’s Wild Glass Answers Sustainability and Landfill Issues

by Erica Harrop, Founder/CEO Global Package LLC 

      Study after study has proved that consumers prefer glass over other packaging materials for several reasons: Because it is aesthetically pleasing, is virtually inert and doesn’t interact with the food or beverage it holds, and because it is recyclable.

      Global Package has a long tradition of promoting glass in the wine and spirits industries for these very reasons. Our latest collection of Wild Glass, produced by Estal Packaging, is 100% sustainable “real cycled” and boasts a production process that is both efficient and ecologically sustainable. It utilizes only post-consumer recycled glass collected from municipalities and its production method uses lower fuel consumption, resulting in a reduction of CO2 as well as less extraction of virgin material.

      Importantly, glass addresses the sustainability issue that today’s consumers are demanding. According to a 2019 article in Chemical & Engineering News:

“Glass can be recycled endlessly by crushing, blending, and melting it together with sand and other starting materials. Doing so benefits manufacturers, the environment, and consumers. Yet each year only one-third of the roughly 10 million metric tons of glass that Americans throw away is recycled. The rest ends up in landfills. In contrast, some European countries recycle more that 90% of their glass. US glass trade groups (such as Owens-Illinois) are working to boost these numbers.”            

      In addition, a recent report by Owens-Illinois reveals that waste management companies in North America and around the world are running out of landfill space, a growing problem now that China is no longer accepting our trash. In a recent article in American Recycler entitled “Landfill Space Continues to Decline” author Maura Keller reports that “the future of landfills looks bleak” and estimates that we have less than two decades before landfills in the US reach capacity, with single-use plastics in the form of beverage containers, take out containers, shampoo bottles, detergent bottles and similar items contributing the lion’s share.

      As landfills grow in short supply, glass packaging becomes an increasingly vital component to reaching America’s aggressive sustainable goals. Here’s more from American Recycler:

“Haulers and others will be disincentivized to put obvious recyclables like glass in landfills, and we’ll see a broader harmonizing of our waste management and recycling policies to further disincentivize putting recyclables in landfills …At the same time, glass-only curbside collection and/or alternate collection systems will become the predominant collection method boosting glass collection in the U.S. to 50 percent by 2030.” 

      In other words, waste management companies will increasingly force consumers to recycle their glass containers, not toss them into landfill collection bins, so the sustainable value of glass grows exponentially.

      Global Package’s line of Wild Glass is the most sustainable glass on the market. Additionally, each of these bottles is truly unique since the production process allows for slight imperfections in the natural formation of the glass to remain, making each bottle an aesthetic one-of-a-kind work of art. As important, the manufacturing process retains all the benefits of automation.

      Tests run by Estal, our glass partners in Europe, have shown a significant reduction in the discard rate since the process doesn’t discard bottles with these slight cosmetic imperfections. It’s a win-win …100% sustainability and gorgeous quality design.

      As Global Package continues to work with leaders in the glass industry to find solutions to the landfill and recycling concerns, we are proud to offer the full line of Wild Glass, which is now inventoried here in California.

      Global Package (www.globalpackage.net) is located at 2793 Napa Valley Corporate Drive, Napa, CA 94558 and can be reached at 707-224-5670.