How it is done
Collecting used glass: Why it’s important
Collecting and recycling glass packaging is a simple and very effective way of helping to protect the environment. This is because every used bottle, every empty pickle jar and every spooned-out jam jar can be melted down and made into new packaging glass. This means that no new raw materials have to be extracted from nature. We will show you what is important when collecting used glass.
In Austria, we have been collecting glass packaging for over 45 years so that it can be recycled. Old becomes new - over and over again. What was once a jam jar may become a perfume bottle. On average, 2/3 of the glass packaging produced in Austria consists of used glass. But there is more.
How do we collect properly?
For glass recycling, we only collect glass that contains packaging, i.e. bottles, food jars, medicine bottles, perfume bottles and the like. When these glass packaging items are empty, we send them to the used glass collection - completely transparent bottles and jars to the white glass, all others to the colored glass. This separation is important because white glass (clear glass) is used to produce white glass again and colored glass is used to produce colored glass.
If a bottle of colored glass is added to the white glass, 500 kg of white glass can no longer be used as such. In case of doubt, if there is a slight hint of color, add the glass packaging to the colored glass. By the way: In the glass collection truck, white glass and colored glass naturally remain separated by a partition.
Lids and caps off - why?
It is essential to ensure that lids and closures are not disposed of with the used glass collection, but are disposed of correctly in the yellow garbage can or yellow bag. Only then can the lids and caps be recycled properly. Metal rings and labels that cannot be easily removed may remain on the glass packaging or glass bottle. By the way: it is not necessary to wash them out - empty and spooned out is sufficient for recycling. Honey jars are an exception; please only throw them into the container once they have been washed. This is a recommendation from beekeepers to protect the bees.
What does not belong in the used glass collection?
All other glass products that are not used as packaging do not belong in the used glass collection: drinking glasses, vases, glass tableware, light bulbs, window glass or mirrors are best taken to the waste disposal site or recycling center. Of course, packaging made of other materials (plastic, metal, paper) has no place in the glass container. They should be disposed of as intended so that they can also be recycled.
Why is glass recycling so good for the environment?
Eva Koller, Managing Director of Austria Glas Recycling GmbH: "Disposing of used glass carefully is easy and very important for environmental protection. Thanks to glass recycling, we save around 300,000 tons of raw materials every year - for example sand - which we would have to take from nature without recycling. In addition, glass recycling requires significantly less energy than melting down the so-called primary raw materials. Every 10% of used glass used in the production of new glass packaging reduces energy consumption by 3% and cuts CO2 emissions by 7%. The annual saving in electrical energy corresponds to the annual consumption of around 58,000 households and reduces the CO2 footprint of us all."
25 billion pieces of glass packaging
Used glass has been collected in Austria since 1977 - that's around 260,000 tons every year across the country. Since glass collection began in the 1970s, we have collected almost 8 million tons of used glass, recycled it and used it to produce new glass packaging. That's around 25 billion bottles, food jars, etc. If we were to line up these 25 billion pieces of glass packaging, we could circle the globe around 150 times or pile up a mountain of glass around 3,800 meters high on a soccer pitch.
Thank you for carefully collecting used glass
Dr. Harald Hauke, Managing Director of Austria Glas Recycling GmbH: "People in Austria are environmentally aware. Each and every one of them makes an important contribution to environmental and climate protection by taking glass collection seriously and participating. Please always return empty disposable glass packaging to the bottle bank and return reusable glass containers to the retailer. Glass bottles and food jars that you put in the residual waste are lost for recycling. Thank you for your commitment."
Photos:
Daniel Willinger
Moritz Scheer
Graphics:
Verdino
Video:
Ackerblau
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
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