Glass Vials to Evolve Your Sustainability Goals

It’s been acknowledged that the pharmaceutical industry is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, even higher than the automotive industry. In response, drug makers are setting aggressive sustainability goals and looking to suppliers to jointly combat this immediate and urgent problem.

Achieving these goals and targets will require several solutions, including improved approaches to pharmaceutical supply chain management. Primary packaging materials represent one area of opportunity for reducing emissions, where glass manufacturing is an energy intensive process, and more than 100,000 tons of pharmaceutical glass packaging go to landfills each year. This presentation will consider key stages in the life cycle of glass packaging, including raw materials, melting, forming, fill & finish, etc. and their potential to reduce the environmental impact. Strategies being employed by pharmaceutical glass suppliers to improve the sustainability of their products will also be reviewed, including innovative product designs that reduce material waste.