UK glass recycling lagging behind major EU countries, report finds

10 comments
  1. I guess with the cost to the environment as well as a monetary cost of energy to business, melting anything down for re-use is going to suffer especial at the moment.

    In the case of glass, there are very good environmental arguments against using black or grey energy to recycle in terms of net benefits.

  2. I found a good method of recycling is by the Dutch (other countries might do it). They have machines in the back of the supermarkets where you put your glass/plastic bottles & then you are given a small amount for each bottle which you can then use against your shopping.

    IIRC you are charged extra when purchasing the bottles, so it’s only a refund deposit essentially.

  3. We really should be returning glass bottles for reuse rather than recycling, it worked well in the past*

    It’d also be sensible to require all bottles to be clear glass, so recycling is easier.

    *milk bottles, Barr’s fizzy drinks etc.

  4. My nearest bottle bank is 3 miles away, and no glass collection from the council, so my glass doesn’t get recycled.

  5. Assuming there are other counties like mine where you dump everything into a single recycling bin then of course you can’t recycle as well. The glass will break and end up stuck in other items causing contamination of the paper, plastic, etc.

    Compare that to other countries that expect you to separate items.

    It is really the worst possible way to try to recycle anything.

  6. There are some people on my street and the one on the opposite side of the alley that refuse to recycle and they’ll often just dump everything into the general waste bin.

    One for example produces enough waste over two weeks to fill up three bins and has tried putting their rubbish in our bin several times, once so it wasn’t taken away. I confronted them about it, they put the bag down and it opened up. Literally filled with only drink cans and bottles. They asked the bin men if they could refill it, again, mostly the sound of metal and glass. Not once have they put out the recycling bin in the two years I’ve had my house.

    How are we meant to reach targets for recycling if people are actively ignoring it?

Leave a Reply