Dec. 29, 2008 – Glass container maker Ardagh Glass, as well
as Coca-Cola, Coors and other beverage companies, are using facsimile
bottles with built-in active RFID tags and sensors to identify sites on
assembly lines that subject the glass to damaging pressure or
collisions.
With an eye on reducing glass waste and decreasing the amount of fuel
consumed to transport glass products, British nonprofit organization Waste & Resources Action Programme
(WRAP) has developed a program intended to encourage glass bottle
manufacturers, as well as food and beverage companies, to lighten the
load.
WRAP's efforts have spurred the U.K. glass industry to produce new,
lighter-weight glass bottles for holding everything from wine to
coffee. But the manufacturing, bottling and transportation processes
were designed for heavier, sturdier receptacles, and are not always
appropriate for this new, more sustainable design. With lighter glass,
the risk of breakage increases in factories at which bottles are made,
as well as in the plants where beverages are bottled, and in the trucks
that transport those containers, whether empty or filled.
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