Glass was one of the first materials to be widely recycled in the UK, and I’m sure many people remember seeing bottle banks since the 80’s.
Glass is one of the perfect recyclable materials, as the is no degradation and can be recycled almost indefinitely. However, that’s’ not to say that you shouldn’t try and re-use glass first, and it really shines here too.
Glass is a great storage container, can be easily washed and realised many times. But if it can’t be reused, then it can be recycled.
Reuse before recycle
Unless there is no use, it is still far better to reuse a glass item than recycling them. Things like jars and bottles can still be used time and time again for what they were made for – storing things.
You can buy kilner jars in the shop, so why not reuse the jars you have? I bought a luxury dessert once, and still use the glasses they came in as drinking glasses. And ramekins for whatever I need, even washing paintbrushes in. Basically, there are a lot of useful ways you can reuse a glass jar, bottle, ramekin, etc. so make sure you try 😉
Not all glass is the same…
There are, however, some caveats to this; all glass is not created equally. Things to look out for are special glasses such as pyrex (glass with additives), windows (house or car), bulbs (electronic and glass), and a few others – we will list them below.
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