Glass

What is glass made from?

Glass is made from a mixture of sand, soda ash, limestone and other additives. Nearly 80% of the materials needed to make glass for bottles and jars can be reclaimed from waste glass.

Why should we recycle glass?

• Recycling glass uses less energy and produces less pollution than producing glass from raw materials.

• Recycling glass reduces demand for water and for raw materials which require mining.

• Glass recycling reduces the amount of glass that goes into landfill. Glass can last for a very long time  in a landfill site.

What sort of glass can be recycled?

All different sorts of glass can be recycled from glass jam jars, sauce bottles to wine bottles. Different colours of glass can also be recycled including brown, blue, clear and green.

How is glass recycled?

Once glass has been collected from the banks it goes to the glass manufacturer who crushes the glass into small pieces called cullet This is then melted and made into new glass products.

What can we make from recycled glass?

Most glass is made back into bottles.

But first...Think before you throw.

• Try to find new uses for bottles, e.g. using empty coffee jars to store small items such as drawing pins and paper clips.

• Avoid buying items in non-returnable glass containers where alternatives are available.

• Take bottles and jars which cannot be reused or returned to bottle banks.

• Don't throw away returnable bottles, return them, e.g. milk bottles.

• Use empty jam jars to store homemade jams in.

Before you recycle remember:

• Rinse the bottles or jars, just use the washing up water that you have used for your dishes.

• Avoid making a special journey by car to the recycling centre - take recyclables with you when you know you will be passing facilities.

• Wherever possible, remove metal or plastic tops, corks and rings from bottles or jars.

• Only put glass bottles or jars into the banks - not light bulbs or other items. It is also important not to put glass cookware such as 'Pyrex' or 'Visionware' into bottle banks. These do not melt like ordinary glass, and can result in a substandard finished product or loss of production time.

• Don't put returnable bottles, such as milk bottles and some beer bottles, in bottle banks. They are made for re-use.

• Make sure that you put the bottles in the correct bank - clear, green or brown. Bottles made from blue glass can be put in the green glass bank and clear glass bottles with a coloured coating can go in the clear glass bank - any finishes added later will burn off in the furnace.