Background Documents

Recyclable Content of Glass Packaging

As the glass industry's trade association we are increasingly being asked to provide data on the recycled content of the products produced by our members.

This is not as easy a question to answer as would at first appear to be the case.

Firstly, no two factories - even within the same group - will use the same levels of cullet in their batch.

Secondly, the percentage of cullet used will vary from day to day depending upon availability.

Thirdly, the same bottle or jar supplied by different manufacturers will contain varying amounts of cullet.

Fourthly, the same bottle or jar produced on different production runs - even within the same factory - is more than likely to be produced using varying amounts of cullet.

Fifthly, UK retailers and brand owners import filled products from around the world - wines, spirits, cooking oils, cooking sauces, baby foods and perfumes - and we are not able to calculate the recycled content of these products, although they will end up in the UK's waste stream.

Conversely, about 1 billion bottles a year - mainly destined for the spirits market - are produced and filled in the UK and then exported. They do not enter into the UK retail sector or our waste stream.

Climate Change Negotiated Agreement

The climate change levy was introduced by Government in April 2001. It is an energy tax on natural gas, lpg, coal and electricity and is intended to encourage energy efficiency measures, thereby contributing to the UK's climate change programme.

Glass sector companies can benefit from an 80% rebate on the Levy through membership of the glass sector Climate Change Agreement (CCA) which runs until 2013. This rebate is conditional upon companies achieving agreed energy efficiency targets at milestones during the Agreement.

The glass sector Agreement is centrally managed by British Glass, which administers performance reporting to Government, acts as a link between Government and Agreement companies and offers a central source of expertise on the scheme and its requirements.