Flat Glass industry in Europe: Impact of Circular Economy strategies on supply chain and production processes

The construction sector is Europe’s largest consumer of flat glass (FG). The production process for flat glass is highly energy-intensive, leading to significant global emissions of CO2. Consequently, the flat glass industry demands considerable focus on circularity and sustainability. This work proposes Circular Economy (CE) strategies to drive the flat glass industry towards sustainability and evaluates their impact on the supply chain and production processes within Europe. Initially, the study reviews conventional flat glass production and maps Europe's typical average supply chain. Subsequently, promising CE strategies are identified, with an emphasis on creating a circular supply chain, including closed-loop systems. The article assesses the effects of implementing CE strategies in supply chain and production processes regarding raw material mass balance, energy consumption, water usage, transport and costs. The maturity and applicability of these CE strategies vary, facing barriers and limitations, such as the technical properties of end-of-life (EoL) FG, availability and quality of FG cullet, transport, and costs. This paper underscores the importance of the cullet in advancing CE strategies and achieving flat-to-flat recycling targets set by European producers to reduce embodied emissions. It also identifies logistical and policy-related barriers to implementing CE strategies. Overall, this study contributes to the further development and scaling of circular strategies within the European flat glass sector.