Ardagh and Jägermeister introduce low-carbon emerald glass bottles to the spirits sector

Ardagh Glass Packaging Europe (AGP Europe) has announced it will provide its long-term customer Jägermeister with “the world’s first” emerald green bottles produced at its NextGen Furnace. The two companies say that this move will “significantly reduce” the CO2 impact of the Jägermeister bottle.

“Partnering exclusively with Jägermeister, we’re scaling innovation with impact,” says Joris Goossens, R&D project manager at AGP Europe.

“After successfully producing lower-carbon amber glass in our NextGen Furnace, the next step is to use the same groundbreaking technology to produce green glass — aiming to deliver the first lower-carbon emerald glass bottles to the spirits sector.”

Carsten Doliwa, vice president of procurement at Mast-Jägermeister SE, adds: “The signing of a contract for up to 14 million 70 cl bottles from the NextGen Furnace in Obernkirchen, Germany, is a milestone in our long-standing partnership with AGP.”

“The production of our green Jägermeister bottles with this new technology aims to reduce CO2 emissions by an envisaged 64% per bottle, which, if achieved, will directly contribute to our sustainability goals.”

Solar-powered furnace

AGP Europe’s NextGen Furnace in Obernkirchen has been producing glass since the end of 2023. The furnace’s hybrid technology uses 42 electrodes, which are responsible for up to 80% of the electrical heating needed and have already been shown to work for the production of amber glass packaging. 

The NextGen Furnace is further said to use 60% renewable solar electricity for glass melting and recycled content of up to 70%, which overall reduced the carbon impact of amber glass packaging by 64%.

The solar-powered electricity is sourced through a Power Purchase Agreement with Sunnic Lighthouse and parent company Enerparc AG, in Germany.

In the UK, Ardagh Glass has successfully produced glass packaging using biofuel.

The company also recently provided glass packaging for alcohol to Heritage beer in the US and Hernö Gin in Sweden.