Close the Glass Loop and the European Waste Management Sector join forces to increase collection for recycling of glass packaging
The Close the Glass Loop platform grows bigger and stronger with FEAD – the European Waste Management Association becoming its 16th European partner. This further emphasizes the determination and commitment of the whole glass packaging value chain to achieve a 90% glass collection for recycling rate in the EU by 2030.
Brussels, 09 September 2025 – The private waste management sector plays a crucial role in ensuring the effective collection for recycling of glass packaging, making it a key enabler of this circular economy. Waste management operators oversee that the collected glass is properly gathered, transported, and processed, so that it meets the high-quality standards required for closed loop recycling. They serve as an important link between households and the hospitality sector – responsible for separate collection at source – and the recycling industry which is transforming collected glass back into new bottles and jars.
‘Joining Close the Glass Loop fits perfectly with our vision to double the EU’s Circular Material Use Rate in this decade, in particular developing circular value chain partnerships to connect the waste sector with industrial production”, said Paolo Campanella, Secretary General of FEAD. “Glass packaging is already a good example of a functioning circular economy, but even a material that can be recycled endlessly without any loss of its properties still requires industrial excellence in waste management to be collected and recycled’.
Through this partnership, members of FEAD will reinforce the implementation of Close the Glass Loop’s Roadmap to Optimise the Closed Loop Recycling of Glass Packaging, including the development of principles for good collection practices and the support for sorting and processing technologies while driving together the use of recycled glass over virgin materials.
‘Working closer with FEAD within Close the Glass Loop will help to ensure that more glass packaging is collected and from the collected material, more secondary raw materials are being used in the production of new glass packaging’, stated Olivier Deweerdt, Secretary General of FERVER (European Glass Recyclers’ Federation) on behalf of Close the Glass Loop partners. ‘With this partnership, we can give extra confidence to municipalities and hospitality businesses to invest in the separate collection of glass packaging‘.
By joining Close the Glass Loop, the members of FEAD will be working with 15 other European partners as well as 13 national platforms, strengthening industrial excellence in waste management and broadening the exchange of best practices on operational and practical solutions to increase the collection and recycling of glass packaging in Europe.
FEAD is the European Waste Management Association, representing the private waste and resource management industry across Europe, including 20 national waste management federations and 3,000 waste management companies. Private waste management companies operate in 60% of municipal waste markets in Europe and in 75% of industrial and commercial waste. This means more than 500,000 local jobs, fuelling €5 billion of investments into the economy every year.
We share a common European ambition to collect more and better glass, together. Today, 76% of glass packaging placed on the EU market is collected for recycling. Close the Glass Loop is an industry platform to unite the glass collection and recycling value chain, and to establish a material stewardship programme that will result in more bottle-to-bottle recycling. We aim to increase the quantity and quality of available recycled glass – so that people don’t just recycle, but recycle more and better. By recycling more and better, we can progress on new EU 2030 recycling targets and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, achieving sustainable growth opportunities in the Circular Economy. See more at www.closetheglassloop.eu