Glass Recycling

The British glass industry makes 1.9 million tonnes of glass per year.

This is the equivalent of 8 billion jars and bottles. Over 500,000 tonnes of recycled glass from bottle banks and kerbside collections are used to make new containers every year.

Recycling old glass into new bottles:

• Glass is collected from a bottle bank or even from your kerbside collection.
• It is taken to a glass sorting plant where it is broken into small pieces know as glass cullet.
• The glass cullet goes through a cleaning process where labels, bottle tops and any other non glass material are removed.
• The cullet then passes through an optical sort system which uses lasers to sort the glass into different colours, green, brown, clear and other.
• The separated glass can then be transported to a reprocessing factory where it can be made into new bottles.

Facts about glass recycling:

• For every tonne of glass recycled 1.2 tonnes of raw materials are saved.
• Using recycled glass, rather than the raw materials also reduces the amount of energy needed.

Other uses for recycled glass:

• Recycled glass can be used for many things other than making new bottles and jars.
• Glass can also be ground down, until it looks like sand. It can then be used for many different things such as road surfaces, as a filtration medium for water treatment works, or as an abrasive for making glass paper (fine sandpaper).

What you can do:

• Make sure that you put the bottles in the correct colour bank clear, green or brown.
  Bottles made from blue glass can be put in the green glass bank.
• Ensure any bottle tops or other non glass material is removed before putting them in the recycling bank.
• Cookware (such as Pyrex) and light bulbs are made from a different sort of glass to bottles and jars. Please do not put cookware or light bulbs in the glass bank.  This sort of glass melts at a different temperature and cannot be recycled with containers.

For information about your nearest glass bank, or any kerbside scheme operating in your part of the county please follow the links.