New sustainable ways

COSSMA: Etienne Gruyez, you have been working on environmental impact for several years. Where are you in the field of sustainable development now?

Etienne Gruyez: Stoelzle Glass Group is constantly working on sustainability, always trying to reduce the environmental impact of their glass production and the decoration processes. These continuous efforts are spearheaded by an integrated innovation team, bringing together both glass and decoration experts; along with internal technical experts.

On a glass package from Stoelzle, the production process of the glass itself accounts for 70% of the CO2 emissions while the decoration accounts for the remaining 30%. On the mate-rial side, we offer several options in terms of PCR (Post-Consumer Recycled), ranging from 5% up to 60% PCR not counting PIR (Post Internal Recycled) content. As of 2020, we are offering an ultra-clear glass for perfumery and cosmetics with 5-7% PCR while maintaining the highest standard of quality. Through this action, the company will reduce its impact by 12.3%.

A glass you presented at PCD, of course. What about your development program at the Masnières plant?

This is only the first step; next summer, we will renew its furnace and increase its size from 70t/day to 100t/d. This will be the perfect opportunity to upgrade the efficiency of the furnace, as well as various production equipment. We expect to reduce the furnace’s CO2 impact by 12.3% with a capacity increase of 30 t/day. Over a year, this is the equivalent of driving around the earth in a medium-sized car 1200 times!

You also have your own decoration finishing plant on the Masnières site. Can you tell us more? 

We are fortunate to be able to offer our customers the possibility of going even further in the development of their project, because decoration is just as important as glass in reducing the environmental impact. Led by Franck Legrand, our innovation team, has worked on our latest innovation called ‘Quali Glass Coat 2.0’.

Launched 2019, this new generation allows for more creativity in the customisation of bottles and jars as it offers a wide range of colours and now allows translucid effects as well as the opaque decoration. 

Furthermore, our workshops have created formulations without titanium dioxide for white and light colours. We are the only glass manufacturer to be able to do this, and have filed a patent for it. Traditional decoration techniques can be applied to the bottles and new effects can be added by very fine laser engraving. Quali Glass Coat 2.0 makes it possible to reduce our CO2 emissions by a factor of four versus standard spraying. We also work on using new inks at lower temperature to further reduce our emissions.

Our company has long mastered lacquering, silk-screen printing, hot stamping and many other decoration techniques, while remaining in conformity with the CSR policy of the Stoelzle Glass Group. The products used are water-based. Semi-automatic working allows for adaptation to client’s needs. At the Masnières site, we specialise in small quantities for luxury perfumes.  Our experts are also in contact with the other sites of the group to create the decorations on large volumes.

How will you respond to the needs of your customers on these environmental issues in the coming years?

Of course, this is only a short description of all the things we are working on every day to improve our procucts and make them even better.

In order to go further and help our customers identify and measure the impact of their choices in terms of shape, weight and decorations of their products, we have developed a database tool which creates a benchmark of CO2 emissions with the client’s first list of specifications. As a next step the database tool proposes alternatives and calculates the environmental impact.

The client can see graphs showing the evolution in CO2 depending on the change in this or that parameter, helping him make the best decision and provide the market with better products.

The database currently calculates CO2 emissions and will be further expanded with other environmental indicators to improve the life cycle assessment