Glass Recycling

The Facts

• Glass manufacture consists of cullet (recycled glass), sand, soda ash and limestone.
• A typical glass furnace produces about 300 tonnes per day.
• Up to 90% of recycled glass can be mixed with the other raw materials to create pure new glass once again and this process can be repeated ad infinitum.
• Currently, about 3.6 million tonnes of glass are used in the UK every year and over 1 million tonnes goes to landfill.
• Glass does not bio-degrade therefore it stays there forever, never breaking down.
• The recycling rate for glass in the UK is under 40%, yet many European countries recycle between 50% and 90%.

With more local authorities including glass in their kerbside collections and more glass bottle banks available to the public this percentage should be increasing every year.

How to recycle your glass

1. Domestic users - via kerbside collections and bottle banks.
2. Commercial users such as Pubs & Clubs - currently, glass is usually collected in wheeled bins but this takes up a lot of space especially if separate bins are used for the colours. About 600,000 tonnes of bottles are thrown out from pubs, clubs, hotels, cafes and restaurants per annum and only about 25-30% is recycled. This should be 90% plus.

Glass Processors

The most effective way to minimise the glass bottle situation and dramatically improve the health & safety aspects is by using a glass processor.

This equipment using implosion technology densifies the glass and renders it sharp free. Hence no bottles lying around to be broken with the processed glass taking up a fraction of the space.

These small commercial processors are low cost with a small footprint. The need for and cost of wheeled bins is reduced significantly. The size of the resultant glass pieces can be of various sizes and this can determine its optimum re-use potential.