From bottle to bottle: The emerging glass economy under SA’s EPR framework

Back in favour as a trendy option, glass is the ideal packaging choice for the circular economy. Glass is supported by an established and efficient recycling systems. Driving this momentum is a growing logistics ecosystem, backed by policy, but powered by people.

Since the rollout of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations in 2021, the pace of glass recovery has accelerated. While the mandate comes from the top, the real transformation is happening on the ground - in suburbs where glass recycling banks are filled regularly, in townships where buy-back centres thrive and in glass manufacturing factories optimised to process cleaner cullet, faster.

This is the story of a well-oiled machine - and the people and partnerships making it move.

Glass recovery begins with weight, to minimise transport costs, it’s moved in bulk. The response has been a quiet race in logistics: more trucks, better routing, and smarter ways to increase glass collection. Buy-back centres supported by The Glass Recycling Company (TGRC), who are supporting collections through TGRC logistics and transport subsidies. Skip bins placed strategically at buy back centres across metro and peri-urban zones allow buy back centres to accumulate glass and maximise their earnings.

TGRC’s role as a coordinating body across 80+ brands has enabled economies of scale. By aggregating demand from manufacturers and channelling it through networks, logistics providers and recyclers have a reason to invest in better infrastructure. In addition, the company’s transport subsidies and other incentives are designed to support buy-back centres and collectors overcome the cost of moving glass, especially from remote or dispersed areas.

TGRC’s transport subsidy has significantly increased the volume of glass being collected, particularly from more remote or logistically challenging areas. By easing the cost burden of transporting cullet, the subsidy has enabled buy back centres to expand their reach and improve collection rates. In 2024 alone, TGRC has contributed approximately R20m in transport support, directly boosting the recovery of glass for recycling.

Separation at source: the big unlock

If glass arrives clean and sorted, everyone wins. But too often, bottles are mixed with general waste or other recyclables, raising contamination levels and processing costs. The market, through TGRC is responding with education.

Municipalities in partnership with TGRC are trialling neighbourhood separation-at-source programmes. In schools, glass recycling banks are increasingly paired with campaigns that teach learners and households to separate and deposit glass in these large green banks. Small actions that have major implications downstream.

Digital payments and micro-entrepreneurs

But the real transformation is happening in township corridors. Here, the glass economy is decentralised, hyper-mobile, and powered by collectors who know suburb street, each corner store, restaurant, and tavern. These collectors are becoming professionalised through tools digital systems that let them earn through cash-less payments for waste picker service fees.

TGRC’s support/provision of these systems means informal sector is increasingly integrated into the formal value chain, giving brands better traceability and enabling collectors to scale their operations with confidence.

A market forming in real time

All of this points to a new kind of marketplace. One shaped by pressure: economic, regulatory and environmental, but delivered through practical, real-world systems that connect a wine bottle from Stellenbosch to a buy-back depot in Atteridgeville and a furnace in Gauteng.

It’s not perfect. There are gaps in rural access, challenges with recovery, rising transport costs, and missed opportunities where some glass still ends up in landfill. But what’s emerging is a system more tightly linked than ever before = logistics, people, data, recovery, profit.

The bottle isn’t the end of the product journey. It’s the start of a supply chain.

Powered by partnership

This system would not function without the active commitment of TGRC’s member companies. Their financial contributions and support fund infrastructure, logistics, education and innovation — but beyond compliance, their participation also sustains livelihoods, supports township economies and enables real environmental gains. DM

Thank you TGRC members:
Heineken Beverages, The South African Breweries, Tiger Brands, Diageo South Africa, Halewood International, Ardagh Glass Packaging, Isanti Glass, KWV, Edward Snell & Co, Woolworths, Pernod Ricard, Signal Hill Products, DGB, Beiersdorf Consumer Products, Robertson Winery, Peninsula Beverage Company, Kingsley Beverage, Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Shoprite, PepsiCo, RFG Foods, Johnson & Johnson, The Grocery Company, Famous Brands, Unilever, Anthonij Rupert Wyne, Kanonkop Wine Estate, Adcock Ingram Healthcare, Amka Products, Aspen Pharmacare, Aquasky, Avon Justine, Boekenhoutskloof Winery, Brother Bees Honey, Boston Breweries, Cape Foods Cape Herb and Spice, Cecil Vinegar Works, Chill Beverages International, Crede Oils, Paul Cluver Wines, De Morgenzon, Eagles’ Nest Wines, Elizabeth Arden, Ferrero Ithemba RSA, Forrester Vineyards, Fruitlips, GlaxoSmithKline SA, Global Grinders, Groot Constantia Trust, Imbuko Wines, Indigo Brands, Iwayini Company, La Motte Wine Estate, L’avenir Wine Estate, LeBonheur Wine Estate, Lola Lee Beauty, L’Oréal, Malinco Foods, Miles Mossop Wines, Mont Rochelle Winery, Montagu Foods, Nando’s, Neil Ellis Wines, Clicks, Nomu, Overhex Wines International, Peppadew, Pick n Pay, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Revlon, RG Cosmetics, Rialto, Liberty Foods, Roche, Rustenburg Wines, SkinChem, Spier Wines, Verve Water, Stafford Bros & Draeger, Stellenbosch Vineyards, Wilson Foods, Tokara, Truman and Orange, Tuscher’s Packaging, Wellness Warehouse, Zevenwacht