SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Leading glass bottle manufacturer Owens-Illinois announced that it has restarted an idled glass furnace at its Waco, Texas plant.
The furnace, which it had idled almost a year before, was fired up in the month of December 2020. The company cited rising demand for alcoholic-beverage bottles as the reason for the furnace restart. With this, all the three furnaces and all seven lines at the plant are now in operation.
The company spokesperson Jim Woods noted that the pandemic has changed consumption patterns of people across the world, with off-premise alcohol consumption gaining traction due to closure of bars and restaurants. This has resulted in increased demand for bottled beer and spirits, which has resulted in increased orders from its customers including Anchor and Tito’s in order to meet demand.
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However, Jim was unsure about the prospects of operating the furnace beyond the pandemic. It all depends upon the state of demand at that time, said Woods. It must be noted that O-I has invested sums of money over the past several years in upgrading the furnaces with better environmental control systems. In order to save energy, the plant had started purchasing recycled cullet and had LED lighting installed.
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