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Beyond procuring cullet from private and public processors, O-I operates glass recycling processing plants, such as Glass to Glass in Oregon, U.S. and O-I PROMAPI in Mexico. Both are dedicated to the recovery and recycling of local glass containers. We are also involved in cullet processing in Italy with one of the newest and most technologically advanced glass cullet treatment plants in the country. In the last three years, O-I invested approximately $6 million (USD) in glass recycling processing facilities around the world.

In Europe and South America, O-I partners with many of our customers to collect cullet, creating closed-loop systems. These closed-loop systems focus on bringing products (end-of-life or obsolete) back to O-I so they can be recycled to create new glass.​ This reduces waste, increases recycled content in our products, facilitates more sustainable packaging, and reduces climate impact for both O-I and our customers. We are exploring how to expand these partnerships and focusing on North America particularly.

O-I participates in associations specifically focused on recycling, joining with other public and private companies to collectively communicate with governments, garnering support for recycling policies and proposing cultural change. We promote glass and glass recycling through organizations such as: Glass Packaging Institute, the Glass Recycling Foundation, The Glass Recycling Coalition, the Container Recycling Institute, FEVE (the European Container Glass Federation), CEMPRE and ABIVIDRO.

O-I empowers our communities to become part of the circular economy. When waste haulers serving the Pittsburgh metro area stopped accepting glass in curbside recycling bins at the beginning of 2019, O-I supported the Pennsylvania Resource Council (PRC) in creating and promoting “pop-up” glass recycling bins along with permanent locations. The program has been successful, collecting upwards of 250 tons of glass a week.. Its reach has expanded into other Western Pennsylvania communities.

This is why our company leaders regularly engage in public forums intended to explore ideas and encourage such progress. In 2020 and early 2021, our sustainability leaders were interviewed or provided content on recycling, among others, for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Fast Company, Toledo Blade, Philadelphia Enquirer, and television stations in Cleveland, Ohio and Washington, DC.

O-I works to educate consumers about the value and potential of recycling. As glass lovers, our O-I family is passionate about glass recycling and we have a lot to say about it. We launched a social media campaign in 2020 called #WhyIRecycle that invited our employees to tell their recycling stories in their own words to share with our followers. The engagement on our social platforms exceeded our expectations and have us even more excited about our next campaign around this topic. 

Through FEVE, O-I is proud participant of the Close the Glass Loop campaign launched in 2020, which seeks to push glass recycling to new heights in the European Union. Glass is Europe’s most recycled food and beverage packaging material, and the EU currently has a strong 76% glass collection rate. The campaign is significant because it seeks to push this rate to 90% by 2030 and has broad support across the glass packaging ecosystem. 

O-I and Heineken joined forces to support a glass recycling pilot program in Brazil. The pilot program, “Volte Sempre,” encouraged collection of bottles by enticing consumers to recycle through convenience and a reward system. Consumers took their glass bottles to conveniently located “reverse-vending” type machines, which issued the consumer a credit (through an app) to redeem for their next Heineken product. The machine also crushed the glass so it could be returned to O-I to be used in new glass containers.