More than Euro 7 million invested in state-of-the-art technologies
Everglass, a subsidiary of the Verallia group and a leading recycler of glass containers, has invested more than Euro 7 million in modernizing its Rozet-Saint-Albin site.
Emmanuel Auberger, CEO of Verallia France and chairman of Everglass, has inaugurated the new installations at the site of Rozet-Saint-Albin, specialized in the treatment of domestic glass. With this investment of more than Euro 7 million, the site is now equipped with state-of-the-art technologies to better sort collected glass, thus enabling greater cullet recycling in glassmaking furnaces.
The Euro 7 million invested has enabled the existing flint glass sorting machine to be equipped with laser technology, ensuring a higher recovery of optically-separated waste. An additional optical sorting unit has also been installed to optimize the sorting of infusible solids (porcelain, ceramics, etc.) and separate flint from colored glass. In addition, the installation of an exchanger now makes it possible to recover the calories consumed by the waste compressors to preheat the dryer, the most energy-intensive stage in the process. Lastly, load weighing automation thanks to a storage silo improves both circulation and safety on the site.
Up to Euro 1.2 million of this investment is supported by the Hauts-de-France region (regional funds associated: FREME) and by the Ademe, as well as by the European Union (EU funds associated: FEDER) up to Euro 0.5 million.
Glass is a “permanent” material, meaning it is infinitely 100% recyclable without its intrinsic qualities being altered. In France, 74.6% (i.e. three out of four glass containers) of household glass is recycled.
A subsidiary of the manufacturing group Verallia, Everglass treats over 20% of domestic glass collected in France at its two sites in Rozet-Saint-Albin (Aisne) and Châteaubernard (Charente). Modernizing installations at the Rozet-Saint-Albin site will optimize the quality of cullet produced – used especially in the production of glass containers – and in doing so reduce the glass sector’s carbon footprint. Indeed, Everglass proposes to its glass manufacturing customers a cullet of quality that replaces natural raw materials and releases fewer greenhouse gas emissions during combustion in the furnace.
The Rozet-Saint-Albin site annually produces around 230 kilotons of cullet and has 30 employees. Work on modernizing the site called on the skills and talent of a 15-strong team over 8 months, from March to October 2016, and throughout this period the site continued to operate.
“Through this investment, we are pursuing our mission as an engaged actor at the heart of the circular economy and confirming our efforts to improve our employees’ safety and working conditions” stated Emmanuel Auberger, CEO of Verallia France and chairman of Everglass.
Everglass’s Rozet-Saint-Albin site supplies cullet to Verallia’s plants in Vauxrot (near Soissons in the Aisne department, 30km away) and Oiry (in the Marne, 80km from Rozet-Saint-Albin).