The Advantages of Glass Recycling

Why glass instead of plastic? Glass is a sustainable material that is an excellent packaging material. Foods and beverages that are packaged in glass have a longer shelf life than those packaged in plastic. Glass prevents contaminants from entering food and beverage products, because it is an excellent barrier. Glass doesn't give off chemicals the way that plastics do to the contents that are packaged inside.

Because of its density and weight glass takes up a large amount of space in the landfills if we do not employ glass recycling in our everyday lives. Unfortunately many people still don't recycle; they throw away glass bottles and jars that could go to a glass recycling plant. For every ton of glass that is recycled the environment is spared 693 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released.

Most municipalities have a glass recycling truck come around to pick up your recycled glass. Some cities don't have the truck that comes around, but they have glass recycling stations where you can deliver your recyclables to. Not all glass is recyclable, because they have impurities in them. Some examples of impure glass would be light bulbs, window panes and glass cookware. Window panes are manufactured by mixing the glass with ceramics to make the glass strong.

There is a method to glass recycling. In order to recycle correctly we need to separate glass by colors. Clear glass is used to make jars and bottles for beverages. Clear glass needs to be separated from green glass and green glass needs to be separated form brown glass. Green glass is used to bottle wine and some beer bottles, while brown glass is used to bottle beer. It is important to keep all the different kinds of glass separated when you are recycling. When glass goes to a glass recycling plant it is crushed into small pieces so that it can be remelted to make more bottles and jars, at this point the recycled glass is called cullet.

In many states laws were passed that require consumers that purchase carbonated drinks to pay an extra five cents for each container. Being required to pay a little extra for soda pop will encourage people to bring their bottles to the recycling company where they will get their deposit back as a refund. By looking on the bottom of the beverage bottle you can see if you will get a refund for your soda bottles, because the states abbreviations are printed on the bottles.

When recycling glass for a curbside or private glass recycling company you need to recycle in containers that are provided by the companies. When you recycle glass there is always a chance the glass will get broken, so the special containers are for your safety and the safety for the glass recycling handlers.

Fine sand and quartz is used in the process of making glass; therefore, making glass from recycled glass uses less energy and doesn't uses any natural resources. Manufacturers of recycled glass are the cleanest of glass producers.