Glass bottles can be recycled multiple times without losing quality, but only 40% of beer and soda bottles are recycled each year. Other types of glass cannot be recycled with bottles. Separating colors and reducing contaminants improves the quality of recycled glass.
Is there a limit to the number of times a glass bottle can be recycled? Yes and no. Most glass bottles can be recycled over and over again without loss of quality or purity. The ingredients are typically sand, soda ash, and limestone — the recycling industry calls this furnace-ready glass “scrap” — and the bottles are heated to about 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit and molded into whatever shape is needed.
But much more can be done with recycling, since only about 40% of beer and soda bottles are taken to recyclers each year. The numbers are even lower for wine and spirits bottles (only about 34% are returned) and other food-related bottles and jars (only about 15% return rate). Other types of glass – windows, crockery, crystal, etc. – cannot be added to the recycling mix because they will produce defective containers.
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The sorting of colors makes a difference. Green, clear and brown bottles must be separated before being remanufactured in order to meet industry color standards.
If there are too many contaminants in the glass, it can be reused in other ways, ending up in tiles, filtration fabrics, sandblasting and flooring.
Curbside collection may carry large quantities of recyclable glass, but delivery stations and commercial programs tend to reclaim higher quality containers.
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