Ardagh Group has won a Resource Recovery Award for successfully recycling softening pellets at its Dongen plant in the Netherlands. The pellets are a valuable residual waste product from the water treatment industry and are used to replace limestone as a raw material in the production of clear container glass. The award was presented at the First International Resource Recovery Conference in Belgium, by the International Water Association (IWA). The award recognises world-class achievements for best practice applications, which have a positive environmental impact beneficial to all stakeholders in the supply chain. Key to Ardagh's success was finding an environmentally-friendly method for drying the calcite pellets before using them in the glass making furnace. This was achieved by the development of a purpose built truck which dries the pellets in transit between the water treatment plant and Ardagh's production site in a CO2 neutral drying process, using only heat from the engine.
