Reducing water consumption across Ardagh Glass Packaging – Europe (AGP – Europe) is a key element of Ardagh Group’s Sustainability Strategy, which targets a 26 percent water intensity reduction by 2030, with the aim of delivering environmental sustainability and production efficiency in the glassmaking process.
To achieve this, AGP – Europe has undertaken significant investments in water reduction projects across its 20 sites, which are on track to reduce water usage by one-third, helping to achieve the 2030 target.
Two water reduction projects undertaken over the past year have achieved significant water savings – the Closed Loop Water Cooling Process in Limmared, Sweden, and the Water Reduction Project in Ujscie, Poland:
- In Limmared, by installing a two-step, closed-loop, air and water-cooling system, air now replaces water previously taken from the nearby river, to cool down the production process, delivering a 66 percent reduction in surface water usage compared with 2021.
- In Ujscie, independent closed loop systems have been installed for clean and dirty water, in place of using local groundwater, to cool the IS machines, delivering a 25 percent reduction in water usage compared with 2021.
The water-saving initiatives have recently won the 2022 Glass Focus Sustainable Practice award from British Glass. Judges commented, “It’s fabulous to see the transfer of ability with one idea in one place ending up as several ideas in several places, and everybody benefits, and that’s fantastic. This wasn’t just done on one site, it was done on 20 sites, really demonstrating that this technology is transferable to other sites and also reduces significant amounts of water throughout their operations.”
Annelene Ikemann, Sustainability Director at Ardagh Glass Packaging – Europe, said, “We’re delighted with the progress made thanks to these initiatives. Within two years we have been able to significantly reduce our water footprint, bringing us close to achieving our 2030 target. We will continue to focus on water as a resource and further reducing usage across all our facilities.”