Corning’s Cullet Recycling Efforts Conserve Raw Materials and Reduce Waste

Glass used for pharmaceutical packaging and the raw materials used to produce it are finite resources. Corning and fellow pharmaceutical manufacturers are actively developing methods to conserve, reuse, and recycle specialty glass, with the aim of promoting a more circular economy.

Circularity is the concept of planning for a product’s end-of-life when creating it.

“In a circular economy, once a user finishes with a product, it returns to the supply chain instead of going into landfill,” said Sarah Dowdall, Corning Life Sciences’ Sustainability Program Director. “In an industry centered around single use products, we’re always thinking about how we can support a more circular economy, and cullet recycling is exactly the kind of work that moves us in the right direction.”

Glass cullet is the waste glass generated during the manufacturing of pharmaceutical packaging. Since joining the pharma glass industry, Corning has used cullet as a supplemental material for production at all three of its tubing facilities in Vineland, New Jersey; Pisa, Italy; and Bengbu, China.

“Not only does this process conserve valuable virgin materials,” said Dave Watson, Business Director, Corning Pharmaceutical Glass. “It also reduces landfill waste and lowers the energy consumption and emissions of our facilities’ furnaces.”

So, how exactly does cullet recycling work? The glass cullet is collected from Corning’s process scrap. The cullet is then sorted by type and fed back into the glass melter to supplement the raw materials. Once it’s melted down, it’s reused in the manufacturing of new, high-quality tubing – creating a recycling loop.

“Let’s be clear, Cullet recycling is not a new concept at Corning,” said Dave. “In fact, our tubing plants have always recycled over 95% of their own process waste.”

The remaining 5% of Corning’s cullet can’t be returned to production due to contamination, but some of it can be recycled as aggregate for concrete and roadbeds through third parties, which further reduces landfill waste. And the recycling efforts don’t stop with Corning’s cullet. Over the past decade, the business has developed programs with two key customers to segregate and recycle over 10,000 tons of their glass scrap back into the tubing production.

“We are open to expanding this program to additional customers and regions in the future,” Dave added.

Cullet recycling is just one of many waste-reduction and circularity initiatives. For example, Corning offers product packaging recycling programs in the life sciences industry that help customers reduce their packaging waste by allowing them to return plastic packaging, Styrofoam, film paper, and in some cases, used products to the manufacturer.

And Corning’s conservation efforts don’t end there. The company’s tubing plant in Vineland launched a water recirculation program in 2022 in which they installed an air cooler to cool the water used in glass production faster and eliminate extra water usage. Corning has also been conserving energy with solar arrays in Vineland, and more recently, at its tubing facility in Bengbu. With solar energy at many sites across its other divisions, the company ranks second among manufacturers in the United States for solar energy use.

Materials reduction in the design of products is another major part of Corning’s sustainability efforts. The most recent example? Corning^® Viridian^® vials are a drop-in pharmaceutical glass packaging solution made with 20% less glass material, enabling up to a 30% reduction in Cradle to Gate, Scope 3 emissions.

 To learn more about Corning Pharmaceutical Type I glass tubing, Viridian vials and other sustainability efforts, visit our sustainability page and read Corning’s annual sustainability report.