Although glass is easy to recycle, there is currently some imbalance in the supply of glass for recycling compared to demand for recycled glass for manufacturing. The prices paid for glass differ, depending on the colour (usually clear, brown, green - blue glass is collected with green glass) which is why it we are asked to sort it when we recycle at bottle banks. Mixed glass has a lower value.
The main problem in the UK is that we do not recycle enough clear glass to keep up with demand. We produce lots of clear glass, but export a lot of it as spirit bottles so it leaves our supply chain.
By comparison, we import a large amount of green glass but do manage to recycle it – so the green bottles we make in the UK currently contain at least 85% recycled green glass.
The surplus green glass is:
- Exported to make new green bottles
- Used to make fibreglass insulation
- Used in the manufacture of bricks
- Used as filtration media in effluent treatment works
