You’re lucky, my area stopped recycling glass years ago. Like I said, there’s a huge backlog which makes processing less attractive. Also most recycling seems to be single stream (all recyclables go in one bin and get sorted at the facility), and broken glass contaminates the other recyclables which is dangerous to human sorters and is abrasive to machines.
I’ve seen a couple pilot programs pulverizing glass for concrete, but as with lots of recycling (looking at you plastic) in most places it’s not as simple as “Just recycle it”. Again, more a logistics issue than a material one.
I always thought it was extremely silly where I live there is just a “recycling bin”. The lack of specificity makes the problem worse because people get confused what is recyclable. The infamous example is disgusting dirty nappies going in recycle bin because they have plastic in them…
I’ve also seen family members put dirty plastic wrap / film in recycling, and composite materials like Doritos packets. I’ve tried to explain it but they just don’t get it, it’s too complicated for most people. That’s not saying they’re dumb or anything; it is complicated. That just means we should maybe consider simplifying it.
I feel like if there was a “glass” bin, most people would only put glass in it. Same with metal (not sure most people could separate aluminium with steel or anything like that).
I try to avoid looking in the bins here because I don’t think anyone else pays attention to what goes where and there’s always plastic in the glass bin and cardboard in the general waste
I’m always jealous when I visit a place which has separate bins for plastic, glass, metal, paper, and compost. I’m seriously considering trying to get on my city’s waste management board to improve our recycling. But we have to live in the environment we have until we can make it into the one we want.
You’re lucky, my area stopped recycling glass years ago. Like I said, there’s a huge backlog which makes processing less attractive. Also most recycling seems to be single stream (all recyclables go in one bin and get sorted at the facility), and broken glass contaminates the other recyclables which is dangerous to human sorters and is abrasive to machines.
I’ve seen a couple pilot programs pulverizing glass for concrete, but as with lots of recycling (looking at you plastic) in most places it’s not as simple as “Just recycle it”. Again, more a logistics issue than a material one.
I think it may be an issue in your area, also, where do you live? That’s such a bad way of recycling…
Single stream is really common in the US
I always thought it was extremely silly where I live there is just a “recycling bin”. The lack of specificity makes the problem worse because people get confused what is recyclable. The infamous example is disgusting dirty nappies going in recycle bin because they have plastic in them…
I’ve also seen family members put dirty plastic wrap / film in recycling, and composite materials like Doritos packets. I’ve tried to explain it but they just don’t get it, it’s too complicated for most people. That’s not saying they’re dumb or anything; it is complicated. That just means we should maybe consider simplifying it.
I feel like if there was a “glass” bin, most people would only put glass in it. Same with metal (not sure most people could separate aluminium with steel or anything like that).
I try to avoid looking in the bins here because I don’t think anyone else pays attention to what goes where and there’s always plastic in the glass bin and cardboard in the general waste
I’m always jealous when I visit a place which has separate bins for plastic, glass, metal, paper, and compost. I’m seriously considering trying to get on my city’s waste management board to improve our recycling. But we have to live in the environment we have until we can make it into the one we want.
The return and earn program does dedicated glass, plastic and aluminium sorting and recycling fwiw