Packaging giant announces R100-million glass recycling investment

The decision forms part of the Nampak group's broad commitment to the environment and increasing recycling rates across all forms of packaging, including glass.

According to the latest figures, glass recycling amounts to approximately 20% of the industry's total outputs. Through its recycling investment, Nampak Wiegand Glass has set its sights on making a significant contribution by growing this figure to the 50% mark by 2011/12. The facility is expected to meet all of the company's cullet supply needs in the future.

The building of the glass recycling facility commenced earlier this month and is scheduled for completion in March 2010. It's based on a green-field site at the company's factory in Roodekop, Johannesburg.

In the past, Nampak Wiegand Glass was hampered in its recycling efforts as the company didn't have the means to sort cullet mechanically.

The new glass recycling facility will accommodate state-of-the-art Binder equipment from Austria. The equipment will break, clean and sort glass according to colour. The glass will be sourced from post-industrial and post-consumer glass packaging from a network of agents and informal collectors.

The company will use all of the cullet in its glass-making operations.

The managing director of Nampak Wiegand Glass, Stoney Steenkamp, says that some 25 direct jobs will be created when the recycling facility is fully operational. A further minimum 1,000 informal jobs will be made available via agents and informal collectors. Various initiatives are planned to ensure ongoing supply, including community-based programmes.

Nampak Wiegand Glass is an equal partnership comprising Nampak and one of Germany's leading glass manufacturers, Wiegand Glas. The design of the new facility is aligned with global best practices in the area of glass recycling; and in many respects corresponds with what's in place at the Wiegand Glas plants in Europe. For the purposes of consistency, the same technical supplier is being used as well.

The company is a founding member of the Glass Recycling Company, an industry body that's responsible for marketing the recycling of glass packaging.