Glass takes up space in our landfills because it lasts forever. The material itself can endlessly be reused, but there are many constraints that make glass end up in landfills. So ensuring the glass that doesn’t have to be there makes its way to the correct place, is an important part of recycling. The reality in Canada is that not all glass is recycled. While 93 per cent of consumers expect their household glass to be recyclable, there are many glass items that simply can’t be recovered.
While Canadian jurisdictions vary on how they handle glass, glass items can often be put on the path to recycling by way of a curbside bin or dropping them off at a recycling depot. But before you can jump onto WhichBin and figure out what to do with yours, here are some general guidelines to follow.
Contrary to the fact that not a lot of glass is recycled, it is a good candidate for reuse. Glass is made of three naturally occurring ingredients — limestone, sand, and soda ash — along with cullet, which is recycled glass that’s been crushed into a granular state. In fact, using 1 kilogram of cullet can replace 1.2 kilograms of new raw material. Reusing recycled material reduces the amount of virgin raw materials that are needed to produce new glass products.
Not only are the materials easy to work with, but there are four simple steps to recycling glass that makes it ideal for manufacturers. Once glass has been collected and made its way to a recycling facility, it goes through four simple steps to be recycled:
While not all glass is recyclable, there are some common household items that can be remade into a future glass product.
What are they, you ask? Generally speaking, you can recycle glass bottles and glass jars. In the glass jar category, you’re usually able to recycle things like:
And while that takes care of a lot of your kitchen glass, that still leaves you with a whole lot of materials that simply can’t be recyclable.
Despite having an easy recycling process and being made of recyclable material, there is a lot of glass that is too challenging to recycle. For two primary reasons:
Unfortunately, the list of glass items that cannot be recycled is longer than the list of those that can. Household glass items that you cannot recycle include:
If you have any of these items and they’re still in good condition, donating them is always a good option. Otherwise, they belong in your regular old garbage. If broken, make sure to wrap them properly before tossing it in the trash so no one gets hurts along the way.
Answering the question “is glass recyclable” is a bit complex. Yes, glass is recyclable — but not all of the glass in your house can be thrown into your recycling bin.
Many of the glass containers that homeowners conscientiously wash and rinse before placing in their blue bin end up not being recycled because they end up breaking. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying.
Making sure your glass items end up in the right place so they have the best chance of being recycled is one way to help keep unnecessary items out of our landfills. A new year means a new opportunity to up your sustainability efforts, and GarbageDay wants to help you out.