 On February 5th, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario Canada launched "Bag it Back," a bottle deposit/return program for wine, beer, and spirits containers purchased in Ontario.
"The deposit program should stimulate overall recycling, and specifically glass," says Usman Valiante, a senior policy analyst with the Corporate Policy Group in Ontario. "More glass can now be recycled back into new bottles and other high-end uses like fiberglass."
Get the Toronto Sun's "behind-the-scenes" look at what motivated the program
The new deposit/return program adds packaging for wines, liquor, and specialized beer products to an existing Ontario deposit system for about two billion beer containers. Wine and liquor containers had been included for recycling, along with soft drinks and other types of beverage containers, in a "blue box" curbside program serving 96% of province households.
The blue box system, however, was collecting less than 65% of LCBO packaging, and the material collected was poor quality. "With the blue box system, much of the LCBO glass collected could not be effectively recycled as it breaks, is color mixed, and becomes contaminated," says Valiante. Under the new system, containers are likely to be cleaner and color separated. It will also divert about 120,000 tons annually of LCBO packaging from landfills.
About 360 million containers are eligible for recycling through the "Bag it Back" program, including glass bottles, PET bottles, Tetra Pak containers, and bag-in-box, and aluminum and steel containers. "The objective is to increase the overall recovery rate of LCBO packaging from about 65% to 85% while improving the recycling rate of what is collected from 30% to 85%," says Valiante.
Glass container manufacturers, particularly O-I Canada with two plants in Ontario, are supportive of the program, which is likely to give a significant boost to the amount and the quality of cullet they receive. Owens Corning, another large local consumer of recycled glass for fiberglass manufacturing, is also hoping to improve its cullet supply.
"O-I was only getting a small fraction of what is potentially available from the Ontario waste stream and was forced to import glass from out of the province," says Valiante. "In 2005 they brought over 60,000 metric tonnes of glass from Quebec and Michigan. The LCBO generates about 105,000 tons of glass for wines and spirits and a deposit system would bring 85% or more of that back for recycling."
Deposits range from 10 to 20 cents depending on container size. Containers are returned to "The Beer Store," the designated redemption center, as well as bulk return locations, for a full refund of their deposit. The Beer Store has also been asked to set up a collection system to sort glass by color and ensure that it is primarily used for value-added recycling.
Packaging Leaders Define "Sustainability"
 Find out how seven packaging leaders define "sustainability." It's all on Packaging Digest's latest Podcast.
Kevin Stevens, V.P., Sales and Marketing, North American Glass Containers, O-I, Joseph Cattaneo, President of the Glass Packaging Institute, and representatives from design, consumer products and other industry sectors all participated.
While each industry spokesperson provided an original definition of sustainability, several themes recurred across all definitions. Sustainable packaging:
• has social and economic values;
• should be healthy for the environment as well as humans;
• is recyclable and made from renewable resources;
• should reduce the amount of packaging required;
• is a cradle-to-cradle material;
• and helps an industry meet business, environmental and social goals simultaneously.
Both Stevens and Cattaneo highlighted how glass packaging meets this industry-recognized definition of sustainable packaging, and why glass is an invaluable leader in the sustainable packaging movement. Listen to the Podcast
PACKAGING TRENDS
New Products Packaged in Glass
 Trend Alert: In response to heightened consumer demand, organic and non-organic food and beverage brands are increasingly choosing glass packaging because of its superior "green" and "sustainable" characteristics. Take a look at 20 new products packaged in glass!
Vitro Wins Big in WorldStar Packaging Competition
Three Glass Perfume Containers Take Top Honors at Awards
 Vitro won top honors at the 2006 WorldStar Awards sponsored by the World Packaging Organization for its "Be Magic," "Irresistible," and "Sexy Red" glass perfume containers, manufactured by Vidriera México. Vitro received the highest honor, the "Prize for Excellence" award, for its three winning glass packages in each of their respected categories, a reflection of Vitro's dedication to developing cutting-edge, innovative, quality glass containers.
The WorldStar competition was judged by a panel of experts from the packaging industry, who based their decisions for choosing the winning designs on protection and preservation of contents, graphic design, manufacturing quality, materials used, ingenuity and recycling characteristics.
"We are deeply honored to once again position Vitro, as well as Mexico, among the best in the world in a highly competitive category that demands excellence at the highest levels," commented Alfonso Gómez Palacio, President of Vitro's Glass Container unit.
 "Winning two of the top prizes from WPO gives us great pride and satisfaction considering the level of competition that exists in the world in this category. This speaks highly of the quality and innovation we put into our glass containers as confirmed by industry experts and appreciated by our customers."
2006 was a winning year for Vitro, as in addition to receiving top nods at the WorldStar competition, Vitro also received 4 of 12 awards in the Glass Packaging Institute's 2006 Clear Choice Awards, honoring the best glass packaging designs in North America. Vitro also won 43 awards in Mexico in a variety of categories in the annual Mexican Packaging and Container Association (AMEE) competition.
More than 256 container entries from 35 different countries were submitted to the 2006 WorldStar competition held in Poznan, Poland, where the winners were publicly recognized. The perfume containers "Irresistible" and "Sexy Red" were produced for the brand Beuti Control, while the "Be Magic" container was developed for the product line Ésika from Belcorp. Vitro's 2006 WorldStar Awards for its three perfume containers reflect the creativity and technological advances that set the standards for excellence in the packaging industry as a whole.
Vidriera México is a part of the Vitro containers business unit, an industry glass container leader. In addition to the company's thriving international business, Vitro is also a pioneer in practicing business sustainability. Vitro only uses 100 percent recyclable materials and practices environmental protection. Visit www.vitro.com for more information.
GPI Responds to Packaging Strategies Article
Read GPI President Joseph Cattaneo's Letter to the Editor published in the February 15, 2007 issue of Packaging Strategies in response to "Glass Packaging Needs Marketing transparency in 2007."
RECYCLING NYC Roundtable Puts Recycling on the Agenda
 A Roundtable on the Future of Recycling in New York City is set for March 26 – 27, 2007, effectively putting recycling on the City's agenda. The Glass Packaging Institute is a Roundtable sponsor and will participate as a source of expertise.
"New York's new Solid Waste Management Plan identified goals and major challenges related to optimizing recycling, which the Roundtable will address head-on," says Allen Zerkin, who teaches at NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and will be the Roundtable facilitator. "That creates a tremendous opportunity for some fundamental changes, and for building the political will to do it."
"This event will use a structured discussion process involving local and national experts. New ideas, programs that work elsewhere, and thinking outside traditional boundaries are all welcome," says Zerkin. "We hope to build consensus around practical and effective ways to expand both commercial and residential recycling in NYC."
Stagnant recycling rates will be a key topic. "NYC's recent Waste Characterization Study, a massive 'census of waste', shows that the City only captures about 50% of the 35% of residential waste that it targets for recycling," notes Zerkin. Many newspapers, magazines, cans and bottles that could be recycled are instead trucked hundreds of miles to landfills. "Aspects of the commercial recycling system also are broken. And we want to talk about recycling in public spaces, especially for beverage containers," says Zerkin.
Four speakers will help inspire the Roundtable's discussions. David Refkin, President of the National Recycling Coalition and Director of Sustainable Development at TIME, Inc. will keynote. A representative from the Borough of Hackney in London will talk about efforts to improve recycling participation in low-income, high-density neighborhoods. Nora Goldstein, Executive Editor of BioCycle magazine, will survey commercial and residential organics recycling, and Ron Gonen, co-founder of RecycleBank, will speak on its innovative rewards system to spur recycling participation.
The first roundtable was held in 2002 and led to both the restoration of the City's partially suspended recycling program and a long-term commitment to build a state-of-the-art and economically sustainable materials recovery facility. The 2007 Roundtable is organized by the Citywide Recycling Advisory Board and the Center for Economic and Environmental Partnership, Inc.
1000 WORDS 
The Coca-Cola Company celebrated Black History Month with a television ad featuring a Coca-Cola glass bottle timeline to highlight 60 years of achievements in black history with the musical accompaniment of Smokey Hormel and Lee Allen's legendary jazz tune, "Blues For Tiny." Watch the Ad (and the evolution of the classic Coca-Cola glass bottle)
Copyright © 2007 Glass Packaging Institute
If you, or someone you know would like to subscribe to "Inside Glass Packaging," or if you'd like to unsubscribe, please let us know at info@gpi.org. If you'd like to unsubscribe, you can also click here. |
