What happens once the Glass is collected?
After emptying the bottle banks, the glass is then held in our yard in storage bays. The glass goes straight back to Yorkshire to the bottle makers.
Glass Bottle Recycling Facts.
‘Cullet’ is the term used to refer to recycled broken or waste glass used in glass-making .
It takes a tonne of glass to make approx. 4000 bottles or jars.
The average UK household uses 500 glass bottles and jars every year.
Glass is 100% recyclable and can be reused over and over again.
The UK recycles around 50% of its container glass (bottles or jars).
Glass produced from recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20% and related water pollution by 50%
Milk bottles are used an average of 13 times before they are recycled.
Clear glass bottles contain around 25% of recycled Glass, whereas green bottles contain as much as 90% of recycled glass.
Our largest glass furnaces produce more than a million glass bottles a day.
A tonne of recycled glass saves over a tonne of natural resources.
The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services estimates that it takes 1 million years for a glass bottle to decompose in the environment.
Modern technology has improved greatly and now allows us to deposit large quantities of mixed glass bottles into the processing plant at one end and get coloured sorted glass out at the other.
Processed Green Cullet
Processed Clear Cullet
The colour separated cullet after processing
Recycled glass bottles used to make a stained glass window.
Window Glass Recycling Facts
Window glass can be melted and remanufactured into Fibreglass.
Ground glass can be incorporated into ‘Glassphalt’, a glass and ashphalt blend, or added into the reflective yellow and white paint used on roads.
Broken glass is combined with concrete to create Terrazzo flooring and counter tops.
Broken glass is sometimes used in landscaping and in decorative applications.
Used window glass can be re-used without further treatment, or cut down and used in greenhouses, cold-frames, or to make Faux stained glass effects.