The Belarusian Glass Company told how much glass containers can be recycled

Glass packaging for food and beverages is gaining popularity not only because of its environmental friendliness, but also because of its economic benefits. Increasing its production in Belarus is under control at the highest level. And domestic food industry enterprises are increasingly turning to it. To what extent it is possible to satisfy the need of the domestic market for glass jars and bottles and what is being done for this, the Belarusian Glass Company said.

- In Belarus, there are currently 4 glass container production sites with a total capacity of more than 650 million pieces per year. The vast majority of the capacities of domestic glass container enterprises are aimed at meeting the needs of the domestic consumer market, - BSC shared. - Domestic production cannot fully satisfy the country's need for glass containers. Estimated shortage of glass canning jar is more than 100 million pieces per year. The situation is similar for glass bottles, the shortage of colored containers is about 30 million pieces per year and more than 160 million pieces per year of colorless.

What are they doing to improve the situation? An investment project is already being implemented to create a new glass container production site of Grodno Glass Plant OJSC, Auls branch in Grodno, with a capacity of up to 220 tons of glass mass per day, which will partially satisfy the growing demand for glass containers.

An urgent question for the present time: to what extent can domestic glass containers be considered an import-independent product?

- The main raw materials for the production of glass containers are sand and soda. Sand is used domestically, mined in the Gomel region. Soda, as well as a number of other components, are imported, - BSC said, but drew attention to an important detail: - In the production of glass containers, factories are required to use at least 30% of glass waste (cullet), which allows significant savings. An intra-republican circulating system of raw materials for glass products is being created. In fact, Belarusian glass factories often use more than 30% of cullet, often this figure reaches 50%.

BSC emphasizes that today about 70% of glass waste is collected and recycled in our country. This is a fairly good global indicator and the best in the CIS.

In general, glass packaging has a number of very important qualities that distinguish it from competitors. Glass does not react with the storage product, does not absorb odors, and retains the taste of the product. It should also be noted that glass is an environmentally friendly product, its waste does not pollute the planet's biosphere. Such packaging can be reused, it is completely recycled without losing its qualities.

Source: https://www.sb.by/