Joint venture (JV) company Glass to Glass by Owens-Illinois (O-I) and eCullet has opened a recycled glass processing facility in Portland.
The facility will use advanced technology and equipment to make more recycled glass available to be made into new, sustainable glass bottles and jars.
It will supply recycled glass to the O-I Portland plant located a few miles away.
“Using recycled glass in our manufacturing process is important to O-I’s sustainability efforts. This new facility will help us to reduce our use of virgin raw materials, lowering our overall environmental impact,” said Pedro Tchmola, manager of O-I’s Portland plant.
He said every 10% of recycled glass used in the manufacturing process reduces energy costs by 2-3% and greenhouse gas emissions by 4-10%.
However, it is sometimes challenging for glass manufacturers to get the high-quality recycled glass they need.
Ryan Modlin, O-I North America’s VP of government relations, said much of the recycled glass collected in North America comes from single stream recycling, which mixes paper, metal, plastic and glass.
This collection process often results in glass that is too contaminated to be successfully re-introduced into the manufacturing process.
One of the reasons that O-I and eCullet chose Portland as the site for their joint venture Glass to Glass facility is the steady supply of high-quality recycled glass available through the Oregon Container Deposit Program.
The new will also process recycled glass from Washington that may have otherwise ended up in a landfill.
O-I and eCullet announced the joint venture earlier in 2013 and began construction of the Glass to Glass facility in June.
The construction supported approximately 75 jobs and the facility will employ 15 people.
O-I’s Portland plant employs about 200 people and produces more than one million bottles per day, primarily beer bottles for local microbreweries.
