Just a week ago we spoke about the role which the glass recycling industry plays in the development and sustained efficiency of the entire American economy. Really, glass is a unique and universal material that can be fully recycled without any difficulty. However, it appears that not all world countries have sufficient resources to meet their glass recycling goals. Moreover, many developed countries lag behind U.S.’s unprecedented glass recycling achievements. Mesa Glass has learnt that Europe experiences considerable difficulties trying to expand its glass recycling industry and make it more efficient. In 2010, glass recycling rates in Europe stopped at 68%. The same year, some 25 billion glass bottles were collected in the countries of the European Union, but only 80% of them were later reprocessed. Mesa Glass has also found that different countries of Europe display different rates of glass recycling: for example, Belgium has the highest glass recycling rates (96%), while Germany does not process more than 81% of its glass. However, even this is not as bad as the 45% recycling rate in Finland.
The main question is what should be done to improve glass recycling rates in Europe and how the United States can help the EU to improve its environmental conditions and reduce the damage caused by glass waste to the nature. Unfortunately, specialists at Mesa Glass do not know anything about glass recycling programs developed in the U.S. for Europe. Most probably, there are none. Europe is a well-developed region, both economically and industrially, which means that European countries possess sufficient economic and financial resources to promote the message of glass recycling and its ‘green’ implications. Of greater importance is the way new EU members deal with their glass recycling programs. It is no secret that countries that used to be members of the U.S.S.R. may not view the glass recycling problem as significant and worth attention. However, without glass recycling, there is no circular economy, and the EU and U.S. should become more attentive to the glass recycling problems faced by different countries.
