The purity of glass needed for luxury perfume bottles has traditionally prevented the use of recycled glass (cullet) in the manufacturing process. This is because the iron content in post-consumer glass waste is too high, affecting transparency and shine. So when CHANEL asked Pochet du Courval to create a special limited edition bottle using recycled glass to mark the 100th anniversary of CHANEL No5, Sibelco was called in to help.
Working in partnership with Pochet du Courval, Sibelco’s glass recycling team began running trials at the plant in Reims, France. At the same time, Sibelco worked closely with the company that supplies optical sorting equipment to the company’s recycling plants. Within a year the project’s partners found an innovative way to produce low-iron cullet (Fe203 < 500ppm) using specially-developed optical sorting technology. To enhance the performance of the new cullet, Sibelco low-iron dolomite and ATH were also added to the glass batch.
Pochet du Courval’s innovative solution for CHANEL is the first perfume bottle to incorporate recycled glass, whilst retaining incomparable purity, shine and transparency. With two of the new optical sorters now installed at the plant in Reims, Sibelco will continue to supply high purity cullet to support Pochet du Courval’s industry-leading drive for more sustainable luxury glassware.