A festive dinner in a smart restaurant would be incomplete without delicate wineglasses and a fine bottle of wine on the table. Container glass is just as much part of our daily lives as clothes and other day-to-day items – and in fact not just in the form of glasses, bottles and food containers. The German glass industry also produces thousands of different containers for the cosmetics industry, the pharmaceutical industry and numerous other applications. Moreover, many container glass manufacturers are global players, and are present not only in Germany, but also in other European countries and in the United States, making a wide range of glass jars, colourful vases, sterile medicine phials and artistically designed perfume flacons.

Glass containers fulfil a wide range of different requirements. They can convey a specific image through their shape, they can make statements, and they are hygienic. Food and beverages packaged in glass retain both their taste and freshness, as glass containers do not pass on any taste or impurities to their contents. This special quality is immensely important, particularly in the food industry, and experts therefore describe glass as inert. It’s what makes this material unique, and it’s a quality which consumers clearly value. According to a European-wide study commissioned by the European Container Glass Federation, glass packaging is greatly appreciated throughout society because it preserves the taste of the content, is healthy and does not harm the environment.

From a luxury product to an everyday item – the victory of glass containers
Container glass can look back to a long and indeed eventful history. Small flacons could be found in the tombs of the earliest civilisations, yet the manual production process remained highly complex until the late Middle Ages, so that glass was reserved for the more privileged members of society. It was exclusively used for luxury goods such as oils, essences and perfumes, and people did not begin to fill it with drinks until much later, when production became more efficient with the advent of progressive glassblowing techniques. 17th-century Italy stands out especially with its artistic glass manufacturing, continually surpassing itself in the production of carafes, bottles and glasses. The final victory of container glass came through industrialisation in the 18th and 19th centuries, and it has been marked by continuous improvements in production and shape to the present day.

The German container glass industry: innovative, creative and efficient
Today’s demands on the production and shape of container glass are focusing increasingly on individuality and specific designs. Production quantities are smaller, as is the weight of each bottle, yet the containers are of a high quality while also meeting climate change targets. Another element that has substantially impacted manufacturing processes is the responsible use of resources through recycling. Paradoxically, the container glass industry has been increasingly impacted by competition from PET bottles, forcing it to find solutions which are now also important to the end customer. Furthermore, this focus on the hygienic and inert qualities of glass has been accompanied by an increasing awareness of the environmental dimension, with images of gigantic swathes of plastic waste in the world’s oceans, causing painful deaths to fish and birds. So the container glass industry is vehemently working on ways to modify its products. It does so by adding the largest possible proportion of recycled glass, achieving smart savings in weight, setting up sophisticated supply chains and creating stylish designs, all aimed at giving it a contemporary image.

Weighty benefits of losing weight
The argument that is often put forward by consumers is the weight of a glass bottle – a criterion which can easily diminish any environmental awareness, in favour of PET bottles. However, this criticism has long ceased to be relevant. Thanks to light glass technology, the container glass industry is in a position to reduce the weight of different types of glass packaging by up to 40%. A one-litre German Hock bottle, for instance, now only weighs 345 grams, compared with 600 grams – nearly twice as much – 40 years ago. And yet this has not diminished the strength of the bottle, as optimised design has made it possible to achieve a more uniform wall thickness. It’s an advantage that makes such bottles much lighter, although their lower weight also leads to substantial savings in raw materials and energy, optimises handling and reduces transport costs.

Waste glass creates sustainability – and glass recycling is hip
One unbeatable benefit of a glass bottle is its double potential in terms of container recycling, as it can be refilled up to 50 times before being recycled as waste glass and then fed back into the production process. At the moment the average proportion of “waste” glass is around 60%, and in fact up to 97% for the less popular green glass. Glass can be melted down any number of times and turned into new high-quality glass packaging without compromising quality. Moreover, the level of social acceptance is unparalleled for glass recycling. Germany alone has around 300,000 waste glass containers, which collect about 2 million tonnes of waste glass per year. In 2014 the recycling rate was 89%. Yet when we throw our bottles into the relevant recycling container, we may not be aware that one tonne of recycled glass saves over 300 kg of carbon dioxide emissions in the production of new glass packaging.
Glass packaging is therefore not only one of the most hygienic and beautifully designed packaging solutions for drinks, food, perfume, cream and medicine, but also one of the most sustainable in the market. The latest innovations and unusual designs in the container glass industry can be admired at Messe Düsseldorf's glasstec this coming October. So do please come along – let’s raise our glasses to the glass industry.