27 April 2020
The Spirit of Partnership: The Spirits sector joins ‘Close the Glass Loop’ sustainability platform
The European spirits sector – represented by spiritsEUROPE – partners with 'Close the Glass Loop' to boost glass packaging collection to 90% by 2030 and put more recycled glass back in the bottle to bottle glass packaging loop.
Brussels, 27 April 2020 –
The European spirits sector – represented by spiritsEUROPE – partners with ‘Close the Glass Loop’ to boost glass packaging collection to 90% by 2030 and put more recycled glass back in the bottle to bottle glass packaging loop.
“With 100% of raw materials for spirit distillates sourced directly from nature, sustainable production processes are in our sector’s DNA and at the heart of what we do. In line with this, European spirit producers understand and consistently work towards reducing the environmental impact of our activities,” says Ulrich Adam, spiritsEUROPE Director General. “In particular, we address the use of resources such as the re-use of by-products from distillation as feed product for farm animals as well as the challenge of reusable and recyclable packaging. “The ‘Close the Glass Loop’ initiative complements our Drinksinitiatives.eu we undertake across Europe with our partners to make our value chain more sustainable.”
‘Close the Glass Loop’ – an initiative by the European container glass industry – aims to unite the glass packaging value chain under a multi-stakeholder European programme supported by national level action plans. spiritsEUROPE companies and national association members will cooperate with the national glass value chains across Europe to improve the collection and recycling of glass packaging.
“Spirits is one of our leading customers, with most products packed in glass. We are proud to work together to increase bottle-to-bottle recycling,” stated Adeline Farrelly, FEVE Secretary General. “The collaboration with spiritsEUROPE will strengthen our Circular Economy model with significant sustainability benefits as increasing recycling rates has also the effect of reducing CO2 emissions and energy consumption as well as diverting waste from landfill.”
All consumer goods industries are being called upon by the European Commission to collect, recycle and reuse packaging. Each country will need to achieve much more ambitious recycling targets by 2030. The new emphasis is on actual recycling and not collection. For glass, it will be 75% by 2030.
***
About spiritsEUROPE
spiritsEUROPE proudly represents the most valuable European agri-food export and with it the interests of the spirits sector in 31 national associations as well as of the 10 leading multinational companies. Distilled spirits are as diverse as the EU itself, spanning 47 product categories and including a host of geographically-specific products that contribute to the culture of their regions (240 GIs).See more at www.spirits.eu
About FEVE
FEVE is the Federation of European manufacturers of glass containers for food and beverage and flacons for perfumery, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Its members produce over 80 billion glass containers per year. The association has some 60 corporate members belonging to approximately 20 independent corporate groups. Their 150 manufacturing plants are located across 23 European States and maintain 125.000 direct and indirect jobs along the total supply chain. See more at www.feve.org.