The All India Glass Manufacturers' Federation (AIGMF) recently launched the first ever ISO 14040/44 compliant and independently reviewed cradle-to-cradle Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) study on glass packaging. It has been commissioned by AIGMF and executed by PE Sustainability India, subsidiary of PE International AG, Germany. The study affirms the green potential of glass as a packaging medium ith its prospect to be the packaging medium posing the lowest hazard in human toxicity potential (HTP - toxicological impact on human), terrestric ecotoxicity potential (TETP - toxicological impact on water and soils) and photochem, ozone creation potential (POCP - interferes with ozone creation) compared to other forms of packaging. The study was conducted by data collection from 28 furnaces representing 72% of Indian glass container production. It is in line with the methodology followed for the GPI (Glass Packaging Institute), and FEVE. It examines the impact of every stage in the life cycle of glass containers, from raw material extraction to end-use. Based on the recommendations from the report on lightweighting glass and increasing cullet recycling, major players of the industry, including: HNG, Piramal, AGI Glaspac & Vitrum Glass are planning to undertake measures to improve the green profile of glass. These glass manufacturers plan to bring about this by initiating weight reductions of glass by as much as 20% through deployment of international technologies such as NNPB by 2015. They also want to focus on converting from furnace oil as fuel in container glass furnaces to natural gas to 50% from the present 30% over the next three years. This will lead to an opportunity for earning carbon credits to the tune of 1.2M for every 10M/t production. Other initiatives include maximising cullet recycling from the current all-India average of 35% to 50% in 2015, resulting in a reduction of carbon footprint by 22%.
