Exploring International opportunities for glass recycling in Latin America

Krysteline Technologies have developed a unique solution that enables 100% of glass to be recycled. Recycling targets are based on converting glass into cullet for remelt (used glass recycled into new glass) but less than 40% of glass is suitable for cullet. Most glass cannot be recycled due to factors such as colour, shape, quality etc. meaning it is often sent to landfill where it contributes greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.

Krysteline Technologies is looking to strengthen our international research and innovation partnerships by conducting feasibility studies in Colombia, Argentina, and Costa Rica. 10 million tons of municipal glass waste is generated annually in Latin America, but the countries in the region lack the recycling infrastructure to effectively deal with this amount of waste. The glass collection system in the focus countries is supported by a network of waste collectors (often informal) who make their living selling waste materials but lack buyers to purchase glass waste.

Glass waste that is recovered for bottle manufacturing must be manually colour separated by this low-wage workforce. Landfill capacity is rapidly filling up and in Colombia glass waste represents 4-9% of the total waste landfilled.

Krysteline will conduct a technical and commercial feasibility study in these countries to identify and evaluate challenges that potential customers are experiencing with developing glass recycling projects so that we can better support them. We aim to understand how to assist local and national governments with achieving mandated recycling targets for packaging waste and GHG emission mitigation.