Glass
In as early as 300 BC glass blowing was used in glass manufacture but it wasn’t until the 18th and 19th Century that industrialised processes meant that glass was becoming more widely used although at a high cost. In recent times the process has become cheap and widely used in the packaging industry - over two million tonnes of glass packaging are produced every year.
Re-using any product is much better for the environment than recycling and glass is a good example of a product that can be easily re-used. Milk bottles can be re-used on average 20 times before they need to be recycled and glass jars and bottles can easily be re-used for storage.
Glass is made from a mixture of soda ash, limestone and sand – the process uses large amounts of energy and raw materials, so glass recycling makes sense! Recycling glass uses 80% of the original product so reducing the need for the extraction of raw materials, a significant reduction in the energy used and the diversion of almost two million tonnes of glass from landfill.
When purchasing products consider the packaging. Many products are sold in a choice of packaging, for example, sauces can be bought in a plastic or glass bottle. Consider the best packaging for re-use and then for recycling locally.
To find out more about glass recycling go to www.britglass.co.uk 
