AGC Glass Europe now recycles assembled windshield glass, while also achieving industrial decarbonization, proving the technology for realizing a fully circular automotive glass economy and supporting the production of automotive glass, with a cutting rate of over 56%.

AGC Glass Europe and its long-term flat glass recycling partner Reiling proudly announced progress on its flat glass circularity project. AGC’s glass recycling service is a comprehensive flat glass recycling program, which has now successfully industrially recycled pre-consumer assembled automotive windshield glass at Reiling’s recycling site. This breakthrough demonstrates the feasibility of an industrial-scale process that closes the loop by remelting windshield glass into new automotive glass, marking an important step toward the sustainable development of the automotive industry.

From buildings to automotive leadership

Although AGC Glass Europe has long been actively engaged in pre- and post-consumer flat glass recycling in the construction industry through its glass recycling service, the company is now applying its expertise to the automotive industry. As a major producer of automotive glass, AGC handles a large volume of waste across its entire product line—from cut losses to windshields, side windows, rear windows, and even complete units of panoramic or sunroof systems.
This new initiative first addresses the complex challenge of recycling pre-consumer assembled windshield glass. However, this proven concept has opened the door to handling the large volume of windshield glass waste generated by the repair and scrapping of hundreds of thousands of vehicles in Europe each year.

Breakthrough in windshield glass recycling technology

Until recently, glass cullet from windshield glass recycling had not yet been used in the production of new automotive windows. Thanks to advanced processing technology and efficient removal of contaminants—such as PVB interlayers, plastic coatings, metal wires, and electronic components—its application range has now expanded, covering another high-quality end use.

Through cooperation between AGC’s R&D department and our long-term partner, German flat glass recycling expert Reiling, AGC has validated a rigorous float glass processing and utilization solution. Reiling’s professional recycling process effectively separates high-quality glass from contaminants, producing clean glass cullet that meets the strict standards for new automotive float glass produced at AGC Retenice (CZ) and other factories. The quality, safety, and performance of the final windshield glass are exactly the same as those made from virgin raw materials.

"Our cooperation with Reiling has achieved a major accomplishment: converting assembled windshield glass waste into new windshield glass on an industrial scale. This proves that we jointly possess innovation capabilities and can convert scrap windshield glass into a high-value resource for automotive glass production. We are steadily increasing the use of this recycled material and learning how to further optimize the process. The path for this process to compete economically with traditional materials is a challenge we are actively addressing, but this success story clearly shows that the future of glass and post-consumer windshield glass is circular."
——Marc Foguenne, AGC Glass Europe Vice President of Sustainable Development

Promoting measurable environmental impact

This initiative has brought significant benefits. By maximizing the ratio of cut loss fragments and recycled windshield glass, AGC has achieved a recycled-to-virgin raw material ratio of over 56% in its automotive glass production furnace (2025 average material ratio, AGC Retenice, CZ).
The environmental impact is significant:

• By using one ton of cullet, up to 0.7 tons of carbon dioxide can be saved.
• Producing one ton of cullet can save 1.2 tons of virgin raw materials, such as sand and soda ash.

In 2025, with the cooperation of our AGC Retenice plant, the local automotive processing teams in Chuderice, Tatabanya, and Koszalin, as well as our service partner Recycle Glass, we successfully incorporated tens of thousands of tons of pre-consumer glass into production, mainly reducing losses.

"The implementation of recycling automotive packaging crates is another step for us to increase our production share. After evaluating the first batch of samples and confirming the quality of the recycled slabs, we began feeding the trays into production. Separate storage and regular dosing enable us to continuously control the quality of the glass. We are very excited to participate more deeply in the circularity of flat glass."
——Irji Kurchik, Production Manager of AGC Teplice

Based on this success, by 2026, AGC has set an ambitious goal to increase the collection and processing of more than 300,000 pre-consumer assembled windshield glass units, thereby creating a new circular standard for the industry. As part of our high-quality automotive glass processing, our partner Reiling also uses all non-glass components in its respective recycling processes, such as PVB, plastics, and metals.

"Using glass cuttings recovered from pre-consumer windshield glass is an ideal supplement to the high-quality application range of this material stream. Reusing cullet in automotive glass production is a challenging task because the cullet quality requirements in this melting process are extremely high. By partnering with long-term collaborator AGC, we have successfully achieved this goal and can jointly make an important contribution to resource conservation and environmental protection."
—— Managing Director of Reiling Glas Recycling GmbH & Co. KG