Successful Closed-Loop Recycling of Automotive Glass
Reiling Glas Recycling, in collaboration with its long-standing partner AGC Glass Europe, has reached a major milestone in flat glass circularity: the successful industrial-scale recycling of pre-consumer automotive windshields in a closed flat-to-flat loop. This achievement marks a significant step toward a fully circular value chain for automotive glass. AGC supports its automotive production with over 56% cullet ratio.
Expanding circularity into the automotive sector
As a long-standing recycling partner, Reiling Glas Recycling has been supporting AGC Glass Europe—a leading producer of automotive glass—for many years in the recycling of pre- and post-consumer flat glass in the architectural sector. Building on this proven expertise, the collaboration is now being expanded to the automotive industry.
Initially, Reiling receives pre-consumer automotive windshields from AGC’s collection system, recycles them at its specialized facilities in Germany, and returns the resulting high-quality cullet to AGC, where it is reintroduced into automotive glass manufacturing—enabling a closed, industrial flat-to-flat loop for producing new automotive glass.
At the same time, this proven approach opens the door to addressing much larger waste streams from aftermarket activities and end-of-life vehicles, which generate substantial volumes across Europe.
Technological advancement in windshield processing
Recycling laminated automotive glass for the reuse in automotive glass production has long been a complex challenge. Thanks to state-of-the-art processing techniques and efficient separation of contaminants – such as PVB interlayers, plastic coatings, metal wiring, and electronic components – the range of applications has now been expanded to include another high-quality use.
The result are high-quality cullet that meet the high specifications required for automotive float glass production. With the collaboration with AGC’s R&D department, a robust protocol for the treatment and usage of recycled windshields in the float furnace has been developed. Windshields produced using this recycled material offer the same quality, safety, and performance as those made from virgin raw materials.
"Our collaboration with Reiling has led to a significant achievement: turning assembled windshield waste back into new windshields on an industrial scale. This is a testament to our common ability to innovate and transform end-of-life into a high-value resource for our car glass production. We are steadily increasing the use of this recycled material and learning how to optimize the process further. The path to making this process economically competitive with traditional materials is a challenge we are actively addressing, but this success story is a clear signal that the future of glass, also post-consumer windshields is circular."
— Marc Foguenne VP Sustainability AGC Glass Europe
Joint innovation for high-value recycling and measurable environmental benefits
Marc Uphoff, Managing Director of Reiling Glas Recycling, states:
“The use of recycled glass cullet from pre-consumer windscreens is an excellent addition to the range of high-quality applications for this material stream. Reusing cullet in automotive glass production is a challenging task, as the quality requirements for the cullet in this melting process are extremely high. Together with our long-standing partner AGC, we have now successfully realised this goal and can jointly make a significant contribution to resource conservation and environmental protection.”
Increasing the use of recycled glass delivers significant environmental advantages:
• Up to 0.7 tons of CO₂ saved per ton of cullet used
• Reduction of 1.2 tons of virgin raw materials per ton of cullet
Reiling ensures high-quality processing and the responsible recycling of all material components, including glass, plastics, and metals.
Through this collaboration, substantial volumes of production waste have already been successfully reintegrated into the glass production cycle. As of 2026, AGC has set an ambitious goal to add to this the collection and treatment of more than 300,000 pre-consumer windshields – thus, creating a new circularity standard for the industry.
Looking ahead: Scaling circular solutions
Building on this success, Reiling and AGC aim to further expand collection and treatment capacities. The next step is to systematically integrate post-consumer windshields into the recycling loop, setting a new benchmark for circularity in the European automotive glass industry.
The picture shows recycled pre-consumer automotive glass from Reiling.
