Recycling: Glass Recycling

A closer look at glass recycling

Glass bottles and jars are fully recyclable and can be recycled repeatedly without losing quality or purity. Once glass bottles and jars are rinsed free of food contaminants, they can be placed loose into the recycling container. When they arrive at the recycling facility, they will be sorted and sent to a glass processing company. Once there, the glass is sorted by color and sold to glass container manufacturers to be made into new bottles and jars. This is hugely beneficial for manufactures, as it is cheaper and easier to reuse glass than to make new glass. Additionally, the cost of recycling formerly used bottles and jars into new bottles and jars is only a fraction of what it costs to make a new bottle from raw materials.

Other glass items, outside of bottles and jars, should not go into the curbside recycling container. Windows, mirrors, ceramic, Pyrex and construction glass have additives to it that cannot be used in regular curbside recycling . These items would need a specialized process to recycle or be properly disposed of. If the additives were to mix in with the glass for recycling, they can cause issues in the manufacturing process. They can also cause defects in the finished product.

For more information on glass recycling, click here.