Glass Recycling

Glass pop, beer and wine bottles, spaghetti and other food jars are among the few normal household glass items put into landfills every day.  The glass in these items can take up space in the landfills for up to 4000 years. 

Glass is one of the few materials that can be recycled indefinitely, yet only about 22 percent of the glass produced today is from recycled materials. 

Glass is produced from sand, lime and soda and uses about 40 percent more power to produce from raw materials than it does with recycled materials.

For every ton of glass that is recycled to make new glass products 693 pounds of carbon dioxide is saved.

This can be visualized if you imagine filling a balloon with Carbon Dioxide.  One pound of Carbon Dioxide contained in a balloon would produce a balloon about two and a half feet wide, so 693 pounds would take a balloon that is 1,732 ½ feet wide.

Not all glass is recyclable; the glass in light bulbs, cook ware and window panes are not recyclable due to the additives added to the glass such as ceramics and other impurities that would contaminate the recycling process. 

The glass that cannot be recycled only plays a small part of the glass that is put into the landfills though; sadly Americans alone throw away enough glass that could be recycled to fill a 1350 foot tower building in one week.  The discarded recyclable glass makes up about 8 percent of Americans garbage.

The process of glass recycling is less extensive than the process of making it from raw materials.  Once glass is picked up and taken to the recycle center it is separated by color and then broken into small pieces. 

The broken pieces are then crushed and sorted before being cleaned and added to raw materials to make the final glass product. 

Crushed glass melts at a lower temperature than the raw materials and therefore the more recycled material that is in the mixture the less energy it takes to melt the materials into glass. 

Producing glass from all raw materials creates nearly 400 pounds of mining waste and by replacing 50 percent of the raw material with recycled glass about 75 percent of that waste is reduced. 

Reusing glass is another way to recycle; using baby food jars to store small parts, creating craft projects, and even making drinking glasses are ways to reuse some of our glass jars. 

Baby food jars make ideal snow globes that children can make as gifts during the holidays and drinking glasses or vases can be made from used wine bottles with a simple glass cutter that creates a smooth edge. 

Some states have bottle deposit laws that give people back 5 – 10 cents per bottle once returned.  States with these laws often experience up to 40 percent less litter by volume. 

There are many uses for your emptied jars around the home and many can save you money. 

Most craft stores sell bath salts and by filling a cleaned and de-labeled food jar with sea salt scented with an essential oil you end up with a lovely gift that cost very little and will usually be much appreciated.  Small jars can become great spice jars in the kitchen. 

If your kitchen has a wooden shelf near the cook area try nailing the lid of the jar to the bottom of the shelf, this utilizes extra storage area for the spices and when needed simply unscrew the jar from the lid; you never have to worry about losing the lid this way either. 

Larger jars such as spaghetti jars can be filled with water and placed in the toilet tank to take up extra space and thus using less water with every flush saving on your water bill as well as the environment. 

Whatever your method, taking your glass to the recycle bins or reusing your glass around the home it benefits everyone by not putting it in the landfills.

Everyone saves when we take care of our environment in reducing the energy used, the raw materials used and the costs of new products when we can reuse old materials.

Glass recycling is just one way to help the environment but is a very important factor.