A guide to glass recycling
Behavioural change is one of the biggest ways for both households and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, and by implementing glass recycling within your business, 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 as we head towards 2020. 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.
How is glass made?
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.
What is glass recycling?
Glass recycling is the process of reusing all glass to create new products. Some glass is recycled to make new bottles and jars, whereas some is used for other purposes such as road surfaces and grit blasting and, more recently, for filtering water. In all cases, it is thoroughly cleaned at high temperatures to remove impurities.
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.
How we can help you
We can help with your glass waste management by coming to your place of work and surveying your needs on-site. Our package will include providing you with the necessary bin to keep 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.
What types of industries produce glass waste?
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 collection service after surveying your output. We have clients in a range of other industries such as:
Bars
Pubs
Restaurants
Laboratory equipment manufacture
Glaziers
Glass fitters
Medical equipment supplies
Mechanics
Scrap dealers
Window cleaners
Car industry
Construction industry
Education establishments
Glass blowers
Glass manufacture
Food and drink packaging facilities
Lamp and light bulb manufacture
Opticians and optical instrument manufacture
What are the different types of glass waste?
Glass waste can be graded and sorted. The UK produce largely clear glass, and each colour of 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.
Dependent on its use, there are different types of glass and the most obvious industry producing a variety are glaziers themselves. Frosted, patterned or straight glass may be used for windows, and the glass may have been toughened or tempered to produce a different strength or thickness.
Different glasses are produced to meet different requirements and, as such, they can have different chemical compositions. The main types of glass in the industries we work with are:
Commercial glass
Borosilicate glass
Glass fibre
Lead glass
And our experts have collected glass which is specially formed for different industries. This includes:
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.
What bin do you need for glass waste disposal?
Glass waste should be stored in special sealed and toughened glass bins, the size of which depends on your business output and needs. We offer a range of different wheelie bins, starting at a standard 120-litre bin and working up to skips. When we consult your business in-house, we will be able to ascertain which size glass bin will suit your needs and how often that bin will need emptying. We provide you with the correct bin, which will be kept sealed at all times to ensure your glass is safely stored.
Glass Recycling – The Facts
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.
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
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.
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 Recycling For Your Business
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.
Recycling glass bottles and jars saves around 385,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions in a year, equivalent to more than 120,000 cars being taken off the road. It is essential that your business does not waste such a valuable resource by failing to recycle glass.
Glass waste collections
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.
