Benefits of Recycling Glass

In order to satisfy his needs, man has been using earth and its resources. The use has been so relentless for the past few centuries that now numerous environment issues have cropped up. If not taken care of in time, these problems will put the very existence of our species in danger.

Recycling, i.e., the process of taking old products and turning them into reusable new ones is one of the ways adopted by environment conscious people today in order to prevent this earth from getting further degraded. Recycling plastic or glass, helps in saving energy as well as a number of other raw materials.

• Do you know that if a glass bottle goes to a landfill, it will take almost a million years to break it? On the contrary, if a glass bottle is recycled, it will take just a month for it to get to a store shelf as a brand new glass container. Thus, recycling glass causes lesser environmental pollution.

• There are lots of economic benefits as well. In order to recycle glass, it is first of all crushed to make a substance named "cullet". When new glass products are created from cullet, instead of from the various raw materials, the energy consumption is almost forty percent less.

• This is because cullet, unlike the virgin raw materials, melts at a very low temperature. Also, making new glass from cullet causes much lesser industrial pollution in comparison to glass made from raw materials. Thus recycling saves a lot of money which would be otherwise spent on curbing pollution as well as on producing energy.

• When glass containers or bottles are recycled, there is no loss of quality of the glass. They continue to remain as good in quality and as pure as they were originally.

• The benefits of recycling and reusing glass can be gauged from the fact that all the glass manufacturers use almost seventy percent of recycled glass in manufacturing a new glass container. This proves the fact that a recycled glass is as efficient as a new one.

• Recycled glass can be used to create a number of products such as glass containers, decorative tiles, rebuilding beaches which have faced erosion, and numerous landscaping materials.

• When new glass is made from recycled glass, lots of natural resources are saved. It is estimated that for a ton of glass that is recycled, 1300 pounds sand, 380 pounds limestone, 410 pounds soda ash, and 160 pounds feldspar are some of the substances which are saved.

• Recycling glass has monetary benefits for households because in as many as eleven states in America, recycling glass bottles by households is awarded with a cash refund on them by the state government.

An important thing to keep in mind is that not all kinds of glass are recycled. For example, window glass, bulbs, and dishes are not recyclable while food jars and beverage containers are. A good way to identify recyclable glass is to look for the "G" logo which almost all recyclable products have.

All curbside recycling programs as well as municipal recycling centers accept old glass. All you have to do is to sort the glass out by color i.e. green, brown, and clear and then carry it to the curb or drop it at your nearest collection point. By following these simple steps, you can contribute your bit towards saving this planet.