Continuing on Our Path to a More Sustainable Future

At Silgan, we believe our lasting impact will be a cleaner and healthier environment for our children and a society that offers them an equal chance to contribute and the ability to enjoy the fruits of their labor. This ideal is inextricably linked with our Mission and Principles— we simply cannot be the best at meeting our markets' needs without fully embracing this vision for our society. Our customers, employees, neighbors, and shareholders expect this of us, and we hope that this Sustainability Report will provide more information to further engender their support and pride in Silgan.

Silgan Holdings Sustainability Report

Download 2021 Sustainability Report (opens in new window)

Download 2023 Sustainability Update (opens in new window)


Our Sustainability Solutions & Vision

Raw Materials
Design & Use
Disposal
Operations
Packaging & Distribution

Our Sustainability Pillars

Products

  • Seek ways to introduce more recovered material into our products
  • Use design principles to reduce the environmental impact of new and existing products
  • Engage with The Recycling Partnership organization to increase the recycling rate of our products

Operations

  • Reduce waste and consumption of energy and water in the manufacturing of our products
  • Reduce GHG emissions intensity ratio
  • Reduce the amount of materials in our products

Social

  • Safety – Drive to zero incidents
  • Comprehensive efforts to determine responsible sourcing by our suppliers of raw materials
  • Hold ourselves to the highests standards of ethical behavior in both internal and external relationships
  • Continue to encourage our team members to support the community in which they work

Approximately 95% of the products our Company produces are recyclable, and we will continue to encourage our industry partners to invest further and support greater recycling capabilities. We have made significant progress reducing our greenhouse gas emissions through productivity and investments, and yet we continue to see additional opportunities for further reductions.

Materials breakdown infographic Materials breakdown infographic
Metal Food Cans

Our metal food cans, the most significant of our shelf-stable products, require no energy to preserve food contents after filling and represent the most recycled food and beverage package in the world.

Metal packages are easy to separate in the recycling stream and require significantly less energy to recycle, and the recycled content can be used again and again. Just as importantly, the essential nature of our customers' health and hygiene products has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our packages ensured these products remained available in a safe and reliable form for consumers. Despite the clear comparative and absolute value of our packages versus any alternatives for these essential products, we also remain focused on further reducing our impact on the environment.



Focus on Steel

Metal has inherent qualities that other materials strive for. It has always been 100% recyclable, easy to recycle and is infinitely reborn into something new.

Materials
Design
Materials
Metal wins recycling
Easy open-loop recycling
Steel manufacturers
Facts:
  • It is 100% recyclable and infinitely recyclable
  • Materials recovery facilities can easily separate steel from the rest of the single stream recyclables due to its magnetic characteristic
  • The steel making process uses recycled steel to make new steel, and recycled steel takes 75% less energy to produce
Because:
  • Never loses its strength characteristics
  • Metal is not hindered by design
  • All steel regardless of size, color, or thickness is separated for recycling
  • Metal scrap from different markets can be interchangeably used in the process for making new steel products.
  • Steel recycling operations are extremely tolerant of non-steel materials
Result:
  • The steel can is the most recycled food and beverage package in U.S.
  • Steel food cans are a positive source of revenue that aid materials recovery facilities in sustainably operating
  • 75% of steel ever produced is in use today

* Source: “Effects of Metal Packaging on Energy and Food Waste.” University of Delaware and Crown Packaging, extrapolated data.

We are continually innovating to make our products lighter and more recyclable and to utilize higher levels of recycled content. Our metal containers are:

100% Recyclable
Easily separable in the recycling & waste stream
As much as 77% recycled content
Long shelf-life to preserve food
Infinitely Recyclable
Minimal food waste compared to alternate delivery (fresh, frozen)
Most recycled food & beverage package in the U.S. (58%)

We use plastic products where we, or our customers, believe the unique strength, convenience or precision molding capabilities are necessary, and then we work to ensure their recyclability.

Our materials team and engineers are continuously investigating and testing new resin alternatives, and Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) resin is the most widely used option. Products manufactured from PCR resin require fewer natural resources compared to virgin resin and are still recyclable, making them an environmentally friendly option. We source high density polyethylene (HDPE) PCR and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) PCR resins from multiple qualified suppliers and can offer both food grade and non-food grade options, depending on the application. We produce bottles with up to 100% PCR resin in a mono-layer product and can create virtually any HDPE PCR concentration through our mono-layer and multi-layer packaging options.

PET PCR

In 2021, we manufactured about
100 million containers using nearly 12 million pounds of PCR.


Containers team
Metal containers employee
Metal containers employee
Containers team
Metal containers employee

In part, our success is dependent on creating and sustaining a culture of inclusion and respect for the ideas and contributions of every team member.

This starts with clearly communicating with our team, and, just as importantly, collecting feedback and input from the team on a regular basis. Each of our businesses employs its own tools for communicating with and collecting input from employees, including the Silgan Intranet, Silgan University, employee satisfaction surveys, training programs, newsletters, news networks, safety observation reports, management meetings and other engagement tools.

A hallmark of Silgan is the "socratic" method, utilized in our team meetings. Simply stated, every opinion, no matter from whom it emanates, is to be shared, respected and assessed solely on its actual merits. We find this approach goes a long way to foster engagement, distances us from bias and results in better decision making day-in and day-out.