A project involving glass packaging giant O-I has brought a glass recycling facility to Louisville, Kentucky, aiming to process 2.4 million pounds of glass in its first year.
The project, which held a public launch featuring Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Aug. 28, is a partnership between multiple brands with Kentucky distilleries, a Louisville-area nonprofit employment organization and O-I. The partners are investing $350,000 to create a glass recycling facility in West Louisville called RecycWell.
Bob Hippert, sustainability strategy leader for manufacturing at O-I, told Resource Recycling the project will initially focus on some of the cleaner streams of glass generated by distilleries in the area. The facility, housed at the existing location of the nonprofit employment partner Workwell Industries, will be located in close proximity to numerous bourbon manufacturing sites. Project partners include Suntory Global Spirits, Diageo North America and Pernod Ricard.
Hippert said the target material will include production scrap glass, end-of-life glass generated at tasting rooms, and any other end-of-life glass that’s been stored at the distilleries and can now be removed for recycling. The project will not be focused on post-consumer glass initially, but Hippert noted the goal is to expand the collection program and move into that stream in the future.
Workwell will be coordinating collection and transportation of the glass from the distilleries to the recycling location. At RecycWell, the glass will be crushed, cleaned and sorted to produce furnace-ready cullet, which will go to O-I to produce new glass packaging. O-I supplies glass packaging to the brands that are partnering on the project.
Because the project is targeting the cleaner streams of glass, there will be fewer contaminants to remove, like caps or labels, allowing for a smaller operation at RecycWell to begin with. The governor’s office said the project is “expected to create up to 10 permanent full-time jobs in sorting, machine operation and materials handling.” Workwell helps people with barriers to employment to find work and will be staffing the facility.
The recycling project comes during a time of growth for Kentucky’s bourbon industry. Just last week, Gov. Beshear highlighted a new $92.5 million distillery planned in the Lexington, Kentucky, area, and in a report earlier this year, an industry group said Kentucky distillers are planning $3.5 billion in new projects, including expanded capacity, over the next five years.
“That means there’s more glass there, and more glass to be collected,” Hippert said.
O-I has a goal to hit 50% average recycled content across all its glass packaging by 2030. In 2023, the company hit 40%, up 2% from its 2020 baseline year, according to its latest sustainability report.
