Made in Europe Closing the loop with waste and water !

At Sekurit Service, our view of the future is clear: more recycling, more reuse, no more waste and plants with limited impacts on the environment. Ambitious? Absolutely. Unattainable? Not if we do this together with all our employees, stakeholders and partners. In fact, we already are doing this. From increasing the amount of used glass into the production of new glazing, to collecting waste from our customers, and from limiting water withdrawal to training our employees on best practices; we’re driving sustainability.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PROPER WASTE MANAGEMENT

Good waste management systems are essential to building a circular economy, and our approach to waste management focuses on the entire lifecycle of our products, which includes process optimisation in our plants where we turn cullet (scraps of glass) into flat glass, actions on packaging (reduce, reuse and recycle), as well as services to customer to manage our products end-of-life. From manufacturing to distribution, from our warehouses to our offices; we reduce waste everywhere.

In our view, there’s no such thing as waste in the future of automotive glazing. Keeping in mind that glass itself never wears out as a raw material (it can withstand endless crush-melt cycles), a fully closed loop in our industry is well within reach. We think proper waste management is not just a responsibility but a significant opportunity for the entire automotive glazing industry. By adopting sustainable waste management practices, we can all minimise our environmental footprint, reduce costs, and contribute to a greener future.

AN APPROACH THAT HOLDS WATER

In a not so distant future (by 2050), 5 billion people will suffer from insufficient access to water i.e. more than half of the world's population.
Water, a vital natural resource, is used at different steps in the manufacturing of windscreens. Traditionally, factories use clean water in their production process and dispose of their used water by discharging it back into nature.To improve, our factories are transitioning to an approach where wastewater is recycled back into the production process, thereby closing the water loop.

Last year, we improved our process in our factory in Estonia as their wastewater ended up directly in the Elva River, which is a spawning environment and habitat of salmon, river trout and grayling. They developed an innovative system to collect their wastewater, treat it and reuse it in their production process. This saves a whopping 5.000 m3 of municipality water and reduces the energy needed for the heating of the washing machine by 90 MWh.