Glass Recycling has been a topic of hot debate this month with concerns being raised about the quality of recycled household glass and how it being delivered to recycling plants. It has been circulated that councils practicing commingled recycling (that is mixing different colours of glass) can only use the recycled material to make roads or send to landfill.

It's easy to be mislead by this kind of talk and regrettably some may be discouraged from participating at all when they consider the time and effort invested each month to sort their household waste.

The fact is that mixed glass cannot be re-melted and used as new glass bottles as colour purity is crucial. However, pre-melt colour separation technology (such as digital scanning cameras) can be used to separate the clear from the green, making it suitable for the container industry. Unfortunately not all recycling plants have this technology and those that do require substantial investment and produce high levels of waste.

The good news is that glass separating technology is improving and colour contamination is becoming less of a problem. Also the more glass we send off to be recycled the greater the need for new recycling plants with better technology to meet our enthusiastic recycling demands.

Ultimately the more glass we bother to recycle, the more likely we'll be drinking from it again. 

There are a few different ways councils can go about recycling glass.

1) Commingled Kerbside Collection
Plastic, paper, all colours of glass and other recylable materials are collected in a mixed wheelie bin of recyclable goodies to be sorted at Material Recycling Facilities (MRFs)

2) Source Separated Kerbside Collection
Material is sorted at the collection site and placed in separate streams on the vehicle (one for paper, one for white glass, plastic, cans and so forth)

3) Bottle bins
The 'bringing in' system is where household recyclers sort their glass by colour and place into appropriate bins located in, say, the car park of our local supermarket.

Glass does not break down in landfill, which is why we must divert it from being dumped there as long as we can. The great thing is it can be recycled over and over again. If you have the option, it’s best to recycle glass at bottle banks where you can separate colours yourself.

Some glassy points to consider:
• The UK landfills around 1,400,000 tonnes of glass each year.
• 70% of landowners have kerbside collections of at least one material, however, only 34% UK households have kerbside collections of glass.
• The rate of glass recycling doubles when kerbside collection is introduced.
• Commingled glass collection is less labour intensive, requires fewer trips and allows for more materials to be collected than on site-separated collections.
(Recycle More)

Vegan: suitable for Vegans. The rest of our products are all suitable for vegetarians unless otherwise specified.

 

Organic Ingredients: This product is made with organic ingredients but not certified.

 

BDIH: This product is certified by the respected German Association BDIH as a ‘certified natural cosmetic'. Strict criteria must be adhered to in the production of a certified natural cosmetic, including no animal testing, plant based ingredients should be organic or wild where possible, no synthetic fragrance or petroleum based oils. Please ask us for a leaflet if you would like further details.

Eko Garantie: Ecogarantie is a certification mark for environmentally friendly products. Originally developed in Belgium it is now a respected standard in Europe when it comes to assessing the ecological impact of cosmetics, personal care and cleaning products.

   

    Handmade: This product is handmade

 

Faire Trade: This product is Fair Trade