An Infographic on “A Bottles Journey”

The average family consumes annually about 500 glass jars or bottles.  Glass if taken to landfill will never decompose.  However glass can endlessly be recycled without loosing its characteristics.  Glass is made from raw materials such as sand, limestone, soda ash or scrap glass.   Furnace ready scrap glass is called cullet.   

Glass containers from the food and beverage industry are fully recyclable. Glass such as windows, cooking bowls or crystal are not 100% recyclable as they are produced through a different process.  Recycling of glass is of great benefit to the environment and also decreases your household expense. There are less waste disposal costs as less glass goes to landfill.  The price of landfill has risen over the last number of years. This has seen a greater drive toward recycling. The energy taken to break down and recycle existing glass is a lot less that the energy taken to produce glass from its raw materials. Recycling glass also stops quarrying of raw materials.  This lessens visual pollution on the landscape. Recycling glass reduces carbon dioxide emissions. 

There are economic benefits to glass recycling such as employment creation in the industry. Approximately one tonne of natural resources is saved for every six tonnes of glass recycled.   This infographic shows a simple breakdown of glass recycling from the time it leaves your home to being recast into another product.

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