Svensk Glasåtervinning

Description

Swedish Glass Recycling – Company Overview Every weekday, Svensk Glasåtervinning (Swedish Glass Recycling) receives around 900 tonnes of glass packaging at its facility in Hammar. A Success Story As early as the 1870s, glassworks bought back discarded glass from breweries to use as raw material. Today, Sweden and Svensk Glasåtervinning are world leaders in glass collection and recycling. Founded in 1986 at the Hammar glassworks site, the company was initially owned by PLM, Returpack, and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities. A landmark moment came in 1994, when legislation on producer responsibility was introduced, requiring glass manufacturers and importers to collect and recycle glass packaging in an environmentally sound manner. Operations Today In 2025, the company received 209,000 tonnes of glass packaging waste from producer responsibility organisations. Of this, 202,500 tonnes was glass, and 191,700 tonnes was successfully recycled into new cullet raw material — a recycling rate of 95% of accepted glass packaging. The processed glass raw material is sold to glass packaging manufacturers in Sweden, Denmark, and the rest of Europe, as well as to producers of insulation products and foam glass. Exports accounted for 18% of total sales volume. Svensk Glasåtervinning AB is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ardagh Glass Limmared AB, which is in turn owned by Ardagh Glass Packaging Holdings Sarl, headquartered in Luxembourg. The company is certified under EU Regulation No. 1179/2012 (End of Waste) and holds ISO 14001:2015 environmental certification.