Glass bottles to have production date embossed

You may soon be able to know the age of glass bottles placed on your kitchen shelf. The All India Glass Manufacturers’ Association plans to emboss the manufacturing period on the outer surface of such bottles from this month to educate the public.

This move has been thought of as the unorganised sector uses a large number of such bottles, mainly procured from the food and pharmaecutical industries, Association spokesperson V Sreeram said.

“Even a single piece of glass can be reused and this practice of using old bottles is widely prevalent in the unorganised sector. As a result, the consumer does not know if they are using new bottles or used ones,” Sreeram said. As a first step in educating the public, the manufacturing period would be embossed on the glass.

“Suppose a bottle is manufactured in February 2009 then we can emboss 01.09 on the outer surface, where 01 represents the first quarter of 2009,” he said.

The move is expected to start from this month, he said, adding that the association has also roped in NGOs to spread awareness of this matter among the public.

Welcoming the Tamil Nadu government’s initiative to ban plastic, Sreeram said people have started realising the benefits of using glass.

He said the development of new technologies in the last four to five years has seen manufacture of lightweight bottles gain momentum. Sreeram, also General Manager of Hindusthan National Glass and Industries Limited, manufacturer of container glasses, said this sector is a Rs 4,500 crore industry in India. The company, with a 70 per cent market share, is witnessing double-digit growth.