That is the warning from UK glass collectors, who face the dilemma that while more glass collections are badly needed to hit Packaging Directive targets, too much green-coloured glass arises in the UK waste stream for the container industry to use.
” There are concerns that other markets are not commercially viable, it is essential going forward that WRAP shows economic viability “
– Andy Hartley, British Glass
Instead, major markets available for glass are the aggregates industry, which offers collectors low prices for their glass, which need to be subsidised by the packaging waste recovery note (PRN) revenues in order to be commercially viable. However, the PRN prices have slumped in recent months, making the situation increasingly untenable.
WRAP is working on new markets for green glass, but so far work has been undertaken to prove technical viability, not commercial viability of the new markets.
Andy Hartley, director of communications at British Glass has said that proving commercial viability for markets including water filtration, brick manufacturer and shot blasting is “essential” for the industry.
“In some markets, proving technical viability has been enough for the markets to take off,” he said. “But there are concerns that other markets are not commercially viable, it is essential going forward that they show economic viability.”
Prices
Collectors have told letsrecycle.com that the slide of green and mixed glass prices seen over the past few months could continue into next year if conditions continue to progress as they have been.
The main problem is with green glass – collectors will continue to take mixed glass if there is clear glass in it, and they have said there is sufficient sorting capacity for the collection increases. Their difficulty comes in dealing with the green glass left over when clear glass has been removed.
Prices offered for green glass at the moment are about the 10 to 14 a tonne mark, with mixed glass a little higher because of the valued clear glass content. This time last year, collectors had been offering double that price for green glass.
One glass collection company told letsrecycle.com: “Now especially, there is a tidal wave of green and mixed glass tonnage – subsidised by packaging waste recovery note revenue. It's putting colossal pressure on the glass sector, endangering collection schemes. I can see charging coming back for green and mixed glass.”
Oversupply
The situation has arisen because about 50% of the waste glass that arises in the UK is green, but the market for new glass containers in the UK only has call for about 19% green glass.
From the 2.4 million tonnes of glass packaging arising in the waste stream each year, under the packaging regulations about 998,400 tonnes must be collected and recycled in 2004. This recycling tonnage must increase by about 120,000 tonnes a year to reach the Packaging Directive target for 2008. But, at the moment, UK glass industry only manufactures about 300,000 tonnes of green glass containers.
High oil and fuel prices has also hit glass collectors and reprocessors, experts said, with higher transport and furnace fuel costs.
Aggregates
An important market for green glass is for use in aggregates, but the aggregates industry are only paying about 2 a tonne for this glass. The gap between the money paid to local authorities and the money offered by aggregates companies has been filled in the past by PRN revenue. But, because of the huge increase in glass recycling this year, glass PRN prices have slumped.
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