(Credit: Pixabay)Saint-Gobain North America, through its electrochromic glass subsidiary SageGlass, will recycle over 1,000 tons of glass per year for the next five years, diverting the material from landfills and upcycling the components for future use through an agreement with a third-party processor based in Minnesota.
This agreement comes just months after the company announced its new global Grow and Impact strategy, which includes reducing waste and increasing the recycling of materials at its manufacturing sites. Under the terms of the agreement, glass from SageGlass’s manufacturing plant in Faribault, Minnesota, will be shipped offsite, where the third party processor, using proprietary technology, will transform it into materials such as cullet used in highway striping and fiberglass insulation and metal for use in mills and foundries.
The Glass Packaging Institute says that over a ton of natural resources are conserved for every ton of glass recycled, including 1,300 pounds of sand, 410 pounds of soda ash, 380 pounds of limestone, and 160 pounds of feldspar. Additionally, energy costs drop about 2-3% for every 10% cullet used in the manufacturing process.
This partnership follows several other recent sustainable actions taken by the company. As part of a number of recent facilities updates to improve sustainability, Saint-Gobain through its building products subsidiary CertainTeed Canada, is installing heat recovery technology at its gypsum wallboard plant in Vancouver, which the company says will improve the facility’s energy efficiency and reduce its carbon emissions by 10%.
In March, through its virtual Power Purchase Agreement (vPPA) with the Blooming Grove Wind Farm, and additional renewables contracting, Saint-Gobain North America and its building products subsidiary CertainTeed received renewable energy certificates (RECs) that effectively reduced approximately 33% of its CO2 emissions from electricity usage in 2021 in the United States and Canada.
And through its subsidiary CertainTeed, Saint-Gobain is investing $32 million to upgrade equipment at its insulation plant in Chowchilla, California, which will expand the facility’s production capacity by 13% and significantly reduce its carbon footprint.
