Just 15 years ago, the U.S. recycled roughly 15% of its waste materials; today this figure has doubled to 30%! Still in the US, over 40% of soft drink bottles are recycled.
In South Africa, glass only accounts for 4.7% of the country's total waste.
Currently, only 245 000 tons of all glass containers produced annually are retrieved for recycling.
Other recycling rates are:
Netherlands - 90%
Australia - 50%
UK - 45%
Brazil - 40%
Today, about 550 000 tons of waste glass finds its way into landfills in South Africa.
Despite being 100% recyclable, approximately 26% of all non-returnable glass containers produced annually are retrieved for recycling in South Africa, which is relatively poor when compared to international rates.
Glass recovery is the collection of waste glass from the waste stream before it goes to a landfill. Glass recycling is the process of converting this waste into a new glass product.
Environmental protection and ecotourism is the responsibility of every citizen and by recycling glass; energy, water and other non-renewable natural resources are preserved. By way of example: the energy saving from recycling one bottle will power a 100 watt light bulb for almost an hour; a washing machine for 10 minutes; a TV for 20 minutes and a computer for 25 minutes.
Glass is infinitively recyclable and does not affect the quality or integrity of the new product.
Cullet is the terminology used by the glass industry to refer to waste / recycled glass.
An amazing fact about using cullet (recycled glass) is that there are no fusion losses in the melting process. In other words, one ton of cullet will generate the ability to remake one ton of glass. In contrast it takes approximately 1.2 tons virgin batch material to manufacture 1 ton of glass.
In essence all glass bottles and jars are recyclable through the glass manufacturers' furnaces.
Before recycled glass is melted, the following contaminants are removed:
