AGC Glass Europe, in partnership with recycling specialist Reiling, is thrilled to announce a major leap forward in automotive circularity. We have successfully proven the industrial-scale viability of recycling assembled automotive windshields back into new, high-quality automotive glass—a true "flat-to-flat" loop that sets a new standard for the industry.
This advancement moves beyond recycling simple cutting losses to tackle the complex challenge of fully assembled windshields, turning a waste product into a valuable resource.
From challenge to circular success
Until now, the glass recovered from windshields was often downcycled due to contaminants like PVB interlayers, plastics, and metal wiring. Thanks to a close collaboration between AGC's R&D department and Reiling's state-of-the-art processing technology, we have developed a robust protocol to effectively separate the pure glass cullet required for producing new automotive float glass.
As Marc Foguenne, VP of Sustainability at AGC Glass Europe, states: "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 a previously downcycled material into a high-value resource. 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."
Measurable environmental impact
By maximizing the use of cullet from both cutting losses and recycled windshields, AGC can achieve over 56% cullet-to-virgin raw material ratio in its automotive glass production furnace (2025 average cullet ratio at our AGC Retenice plant, Czech Republic). The environmental impact is significant: every ton of cullet used saves up to 0.7 tons of CO2 and 1.2 tons of virgin resources like sand and soda ash.
Building on this success, as of 2026, AGC has set an ambitious goal to add to this the collection and treatment of more than 300,000 pre-consumer assembled windshields – thus, creating a new circularity standard for the industry. As part of the high-quality processing of our automotive glass, our partner Reiling also utilizes all non-glass components, such as PVB, plastics, and metals, in their respective recycling streams.
"The use of recycled glass cullet from pre-consumer windshields 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." - Marc Uphoff, Managing Director Reiling Glas Recycling GmbH & Co. KG
Looking ahead: a new standard for Europe
Having perfected the process with our own pre-consumer sources, we have established the foundation to expand flat-to-flat circularity. The next logical step is to apply this proven process to post-consumer windshields from the automotive windshield replacement, aftermarket and end-of-life vehicle sectors.
With this breakthrough, AGC is not only advancing its own decarbonization roadmap but is also setting a new benchmark for the entire European automotive industry, proving that a sustainable, circular economy for automotive glass is achievable today.
Read our full press release: https://www.agc-glass.eu/en/news/press-release/agc-reiling-accelerate-automotive-circularity-breakthrough-windshield-flat-to-flat-recycling
Discover how you can contribute to circular glass recycling: learn more about AGC Recycle Glass on https://www.agc-glass.eu/en/sustainability/decarbonisation/recycling