Initiatives

GLASS - Batch Pre Heating

Ardagh has developed a sophisticated process to pre-heat its glass raw materials to give energy savings up to 15%.

The system which heats the batch to 300°C, each cost around €2m and has so far been introduced in five plants, with a further three planned over the next two years. Adding more systems remains a part of the company's long-term strategy.

Ardagh's work in this area has been included in the European Union best available technology - known as a BREF document.

METAL - Sustainable Production

The Conklin Metal Plant in New York and the site has been recognized by the U.S. Green Building Council and earned the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (L.E.E.D.) certificate for both a manufacturing site and facility.

The plant operates with zero waste to landfill.

Glass - Waste Heat Capture

A small community of around 5000 people in the community of Tranemo are benefitting from the waste heat generated by the furnaces at Ardagh's Limmared factory in Sweden. This is due to an innovative energy exchange installation on site.

Homes, businesses and schools have been receiving up to 100% of their hot water and heating requirements via the exchange at a reduced price of approximately 50% (compared with alternative supplier E-ON) since 2010.

The heat exchanger also provides all the building heat requirements and hot water to Ardagh itself.

METAL - Cradle 2 Cradle® Project

Ardagh Group has become the first packaging company to gain the coveted Cradle to Cradle® certification for its baby food and paint can.

The Cradle to Cradle® certification was managed through the leading environmental assessment agency EPEA, starting with a period of nine months of collecting data of all the components of the two cans. This data was independently analysed at the deepest chemical level (up to 100ppm) and covers a comprehensive assessment of the material input, material reutilization, energy consumption, water impacts and social responsibility.

GLASS - Sustainable Production Europe

The use of recycled post consumer glass (cullet) as a substitution for virgin raw materials has various positive impacts on the environment. It directly leads to a conservation of melting energy and consequential CO2 and other emissions, but also helps to avoid the generation of waste by closed loop recycling.

For example our plant in Dongen operates a furnace with 90% recycling glass (cullet), which is a true benchmark on a global scale.

METAL - Sustainable Sourcing - Europe (NL, D)

The electrical power for the operations for 2010/11 has been sourced from renewable energy. The hydropower from Norway leads to a reduction in energy related CO2 emissions of approximately 75.000 tonnes.

METAL - Sustainable Consumption - Taree, Australia

Project 'Sheer' in our Taree plant, Australia delivered material optimisations through weight reduction of the slugs to make the cans and reduced aluminum consumption for the aerosol cans.