

Behavioural change is one of the biggest ways for businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, and by implementing glass recycling within your commercial enterprise, you will be contributing to an overall greener future.
Of all the recyclables, glass is one of the easiest materials to recycle and, in the UK, we have managed to increase recycling to 75% of glass, with DEFRA aiming for this number to improve steadily. It takes a lot less energy to recycle glass than to produce it, so this simple act is a massive factor in improving energy consumption in the UK. Unlike pretty much any other material, glass can be recycled time and again, making it one of the most important recyclables in your waste.
At Business Waste, we can help you take care of glass recycling with our glass waste collection, including broken glass removal, to ensure you are doing your bit to help lower carbon emissions and to keep your workplace safe for colleagues and staff.
Commercial Glass Recycling
We can help with your glass waste management by surveying your needs on the phone or on-site. Our package will include providing you with the necessary bins to keep the refuse glass in, arranging a regular collection and processing the glass prior to sending it off to cullet companies for recycling. This involves sorting, grading and disinfecting the glass by washing it at a high temperature. We have a variety of containers and will tailor the bin and its collection schedule to suit your business’ needs. With a dedicated team, we will have someone available for you to speak to at all times, to discuss any glass removal with an expert. We can collect bottles and jars, as well as broken glass, for a package that suits you and your industry. We have worked with people from a range of industries to undertake all glass recycling.
Our trained experts will take care of all elements of glass removal, ensuring that you can focus your time on your business and have peace of mind that your glass waste is being removed and recycled correctly.
Glass Waste Disposal
Glass waste is produced by various industries. Some of the obvious ones are bars, hotels and restaurants, which get through glass by selling food and drink previously contained in it. Turnover in bigger and more popular establishments can be very high, and we can provide a flexible collection service after surveying your output.
What businesses produce glass waste?
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Bars
Pubs
Restaurants
Laboratory equipment manufacturers
Glaziers
Glass fitters
Medical equipment supplies
Mechanics
Scrap dealers
Window cleaners
Car industry
Construction industry
Education establishments
Glassblowers
Glass manufacturers
Food and drink packaging facilities
Lamp and light bulb manufacturers
Opticians and optical instrument manufacturers
Glass waste can be graded and sorted. The UK produces largely clear glass, and each colour of the glass is processed in a different way, to produce the cullet. If the glass is broken, you may need a specific collection procedure, which we will tailor when our expert team consult you.
What are the main types of glass?
Different glasses are produced to meet different requirements and, as such, they can have different chemical compositions.
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Commercial glass
Borosilicate glass
Glass fibre
Lead glass
Alkali-barium silicate glass
Aluminosilicate glass
Glass-ceramics
Optical glass
Sealing glass
Vitreous silica
We can also collect broken glass, making sure it is removed from your business premises safely and disposed of correctly.
Glass waste bins
What bins are required for glass waste?
Not all glass items can be recycled in an everyday recycling bin. However, we can provide you with a glass container bin, in order to recycle the following items:
- Glass bottles and jars
- Glass containers used to store food
- Windows
- Glass ovenware
- Lightbulbs
- Borosilicate Glass
- Glass fibre
Glass recycling bin
Glass Waste Management
Our waste management services provide businesses with a bespoke waste management company who can provide bins, collection and disposal services for glass recycling.
Glass is 100% recyclable, yet so much of it is thrown away and left to landfills where it will never decompose. We can provide your business with reliable glass recycling services, in order to improve your recycling and waste management system.
Due to the large quantity of glass that organisations use and consequently need to dispose of, many businesses admit to neglecting glass recycling due to the lack of storage facilities they have on site. We have a range of bins and storage containers that can be used for glass recycling.
We offer glass recycling for all types of businesses, large and small. Our waste management providers are based across the country so we can provide organisations with glass recycling and other waste and recycling services, nationwide.
We are fully committed to reducing the impact that excessive waste has on the environment. That’s why we offer new customers a free quote and a free bin. We can provide waste management audits, waste collections and recycling to ensure that your business is fully covered by the relevant waste management regulations.
For further assistance, contact our helpful customer care team today. We are happy to answer any queries that you may have about glass recycling for your business, and we can also offer you a free quote on our services. So call us today on 0800 211 83 90.
Did you know all glass can easily be recycled
Glass jars and bottles can all be completely recycled, with no waste parts left. Brown, green, and clear glass can easily be separated for collecting to be melted down and used again.
There is no limit to how many times it can be recycled
Some items can be recycled, but they may begin to break down after a while. There may be a limit on how many times the recycling process can be used. That’s not the case with glass. Use it, wash it, melt it down, create new glass, use it again… and so the cycle continues.
Recycling glass saves energy
Making glass bottles and jars always takes energy. Yet far less of it is used when you are recycling existing bottles and jars instead of making them from scratch. Millions of tons of glass are recycled every year, purchased by companies to be melted and made into new glass products.
Energy is saved in another way, too. Melting existing glass can be done at a far lower temperature than you’d need to melt the raw materials to make glass.
It’s easier to recycle than to make it from new
It is possible to buy the raw materials required to make new glass. However, it is a more complex process for many companies to complete when compared with melting and reusing existing glass items. That’s why recycling glass makes good sense.
It’s great for the environment
It has been estimated it could take a million years for a glass bottle to break down. Glass bottles and jars sent to landfill take up unnecessary space, lead to wasted energy and mean these products cannot be recycled. Yet glass is one of the easiest products to recycle, thanks to its components and the ease with which it can be done.
Most glass products contain a huge percentage of recycled glass. Fortunately, it is easy for us all to do our bit to increase that percentage still further.
You may remember from your school days that glass is made from heating sand to an extremely high temperature with ash and limestone and then shaping it. Because of the immense heat required to produce glass from sand, recycling it reduces the carbon output from the get-go. Glass can be melted down and recycled multiple times.
Essentially, the glass recycling process begins in the home or office by using a specialised glass container to keep bottles in, cleaning or rinsing the glass and sorting it into colours. Fortunately, in the home, kerbside collection in the UK removes most of the glass waste from domestic premises. Glass is sorted and rinsed, collected and transported to recycling facilities where it is processed and turned into new glass products.
First of all, the glass is crushed and broken to produce a substance called cullet. This is usually separated by colour before crushing. Once the glass has been made into cullet, it is then heated to around 1000 degrees Celsius, fusing it back together. Sometimes the cullet is sent to other countries to be processed and other times it can be used to produce ‘glasphalt’ and other materials.