Heinz Glas launches "New Age Glass"

Premium Beauty News - The Heinz group and the environment, quite an ongoing story?

Nicolas Lejeune - Situated at the heart of a nature park on the border between Bavaria and Thuringia, it is clear that the sites of the group are environmentally friendly and meet very stringent control rules from the authorities.

The environmental approach instilled by our President, Heinz Karl August, started in the 70s. The depopulation of the low mountain country region has left abandoned difficult to access areas. To maintain these fallow lands, M. Heinz introduced the only animals capable of maintaining these pastures during extreme weather conditions, Scottish cows, this as of 1980, on the hills surrounding the factory. The self maintaining of landscapes was an environmental and ecological choice.

Another example, that of the waste water treatment facility which aims to neutralize and purify the waste water generated by the industrial site. The treated waters are discharged into ponds populated by swans and trout, this may seem trivial, but it is a guarantee of quality for our equipments.

We also Integrated since 1998 water-based lacquering techniques, that is, eight years before the legal requirement, and 10 years before the implementation of this decree among most decorators working for the cosmetic glass industry.

These same principles were applied to the metallization workshops since their establishment in 2009. From this results production process using very little solvent which are therefore environmentally friendly.

Another environmental approach, this time in order to recover energy: the heat coming from the furnaces used for production is collected and reused. To further develop this concept, M. Heinz has launched the construction of heated greenhouses where tropical fruits will be grown and a fish farming activity of warm-water fishes (tilapia) will be also launched, this for commercial purposes. This project will create 30 jobs, and if it proves viable, will be duplicated in each of our glass factories.

Premium Beauty News - In what consisted your approach?

Nicolas Lejeune - Quite logically, since this corresponds to our first activity, Heinz Glas has also chosen to produce bottles and jars with 100% recycled glass. The project started in 2009 and the first trials in mid-2010.

The "plus" in the process stands in the way the glass is melted. To take our environmental ideas to their logical conclusion, we opted for the purchase of renewable energies, which enables us to claim for a zero CO2 produced glass.

The whole issue lies in three watch words: sourcing, transformation process, product quality.

This concept was made possible thanks to a high recycling rate in Germany, by a proximity sourcing, and also by the availability of clean energy. If the main raw materials used for glass, namely sand, soda ash, lime and dolomite exist in vast quantities in nature and appear to meet our needs almost infinitely, the full recyclability of glass makes it a matter of interest for the future in terms of sourcing.

France recycles 68% of glass, in Germany the rate is of 88%. We benefit from a raw material with constant quality, which has undergone strict grinding and cleaning stages. With no adjuvant, the material is pure, and capacities are of the order of 30 tonnes per day.

On the "energy" side, the recycled glass is melted in electric furnaces, and the energy is provided by solar, wind and hydroelectric power. The network of natural energies in Germany is well developed. In the 90s, the country opted for a phasing out of nuclear power and in 2009 was already producing 18% of renewable energy, against 44% of coal, 2% of oil, 12% of natural gas, and 23% of nuclear energy.

Premium Beauty News - What are the advantages and disadvantages of your "green" glass?

Nicolas Lejeune - Concerning its aesthetic aspect, we get a slightly tinted glass, this is due to the origin of the raw material itself, and to the micro-bubbles that come from the high viscosity of molten glass. These points could be improved with the addition of a decolourant and fluidizing additive, but presently we preferred to keep the choice of a 100% recycled and pure glass which is consistent with the overall concept of New Age Glass.

Nonetheless and concerning the advantages, the physicochemical properties of the glass thus produced, remain similar to new glass: safety, thermal, chemical and mechanical resistance, recyclability. The hydrolytic class III is guaranteed in accordance with the requirements for packagings intended for cosmetics and food stuff.

In its 100% recycled glass, additive-free formulation, bottles and jars can receive any type of decoration (lacquering, screen printing, pad printing, hot stamping), with the exception maybe of metallization which requires very smooth and very stretched surfaces.

Our customers with a comprehensive environmental concept can, with the New Age Glass, claim for the ECOCERT logo.

The carbon footprint:

By comparison,
Melting of 100 tonnes of raw glass in a gas furnace = 81 tonnes of CO2
Melting of 100 tons of recycled glass in an electric furnace = 5 tons of CO2
Melting of 100 tons of recycled glass in an electric furnace using solar, wind or hydraulic energy = 0 tonnes of CO2
Nevertheless bearing in mind that the finishing operations, not benefiting from these natural energy supplies, and taking account of transportation, finally the gain obtained by our procedures is 90% over the carbon footprint. The New Age Glass enables to reduce the carbon rating by 10 compared to usual practices.

EXAMPLES OF CARBON BALANCES