Is recycling glass actually a green thing to do? Why not Re-use the glass.?

Question

Is it really as green a solution as we are told?
Are there alternatives.
Where does the glass go.
How does it get there......by road? rail?
It Must take a fairly large amount of energy to melt it all down, surely?
Thanks in anticipation for some enlightening answers.
Dan

Answer 1

depends what colour glass it is, if its blue, it will be very blue

Answer 2

Re-use is much better than recycling for glass. We use a lot of energy melting down the glass etc. But it's not any more that making it to start with and reduces landfill.

I think we should have a deposit scheme for all bottles. We could standardise wine bottle and a couple of sizes of beer bottles/ soft drinks bottles and have a collect system that doesn't invlove smashing them up. Some areas still have milk in glass bottles which are sterilised and re-used - why not do this for everything else too
sorry to be asking another question.

Answer 3

I do lots on my area to maintain the planet, and what you're doing is quite extraordinarily intelligent. I could start up doing that :). right here's a catalogue of issues that I do to maintain the planet eco-friendly: a million. I also have a rabbit and a dogs. with the intention to reuse plastic bags and shop oil , I sparkling the dogs's poop with the bag and sparkling the rabbit's clutter container with those bags. 2. I recycle each little thing i will each and every time i will. something it quite is recyclable i visit recycle. 3. i'm finding into hybrid automobiles for my next automobile while the hire on the motor vehicle I at the instant have runs out. 4. I turn off lighting fixtures when I can and don't need them. ?desire I Helped?

Answer 4

It's a green thing to do because I read in various sources over the years that glass can be reused or recycled indefinitely without adding any new/raw materials. The way I understand it is that the glass is crushed/ pulverized to facilitate in melting and just reshaped and cooled.
I'm all for reusing glass until it breaks so it gets recycled.
Soda or pop use to taste so much better out of the glass bottles remember?

Answer 5

Recycling glass is much better than making it from scratch - the energy use is considerably lower. Having said that I think we have gone backwards regarding re-use of glass. A lot of glass bottles used to be returnable and kids would help with the collection because there was a financial reward to for some of it (Corona lemonade bottles). Milk bottles were all returnable. In France most red wine comes in the same green bottles and supermarkets collect them back in for re-use. Nutella always used to be sold in glass that could be re-used as tumblers. There are plenty of ways to re-use glass - but manufacturers, retailers and individuals need to work together.

Answer 6

To propely clean glass for reuse is an expensive under taking.It can be done but the time and expense would make the price of the product go up.
Recycled glass can be crushed and groung to make more glass and use less natural resourses.Another plus could include the glass being used as building material,not just the glass but in morter and sningles and brick and man made decking.
most is shipped by truck to the rail yards.

Answer 7

I dont know how glass gets recycled, but i know milk bottles used to be sterilised and used again. However this rarely happens anymore. We are told to recycle glass because it cannot be degraded in the environment, so if we throw it away, it will be there for thousands and thousands of years. Recycling it therefore is a greener idea, and the energy it takes to melt it down is usually cheaper than having to make brand new glass and the labour and 'ingredients' used

Answer 8

Well, glass, of course, cannot decompose, but you can recycle it into making new glass. I suppose you could re-use glass, but recycling it into new things seems a lot more useful. I mean, what could you make out of used glass without proper recycling?

Answer 9

Well, reusing the glass is a great idea. Your next question is presumably going to be "Can anyone think of useful ways in which I can use up the hundreds of bottles and jars I have collected?"

Answer 10

recycling isn't that green.
Think of the pollutants the factories expel where they make all the extra wheelie bins that now clutter our drives, the cost of the extra vehicles to collect the material and the diesel pollutant they create.
It's all a money making scam by local councils who are soon going to fine people for putting the wrong waste in the wrong bins.
Revenue Grabbing Parasites comes to mind

Answer 11

i saw this documentary on tv. glass was brought to the plant, crushed, melted and molded back into jars. these jars were sent to factroies, where they put in example: chocolate spread. so.. you can re use the glass u want, and make it as a vase, but if u recycle it, it can be made into a jar for nutella.