Waste glass

Used glass containers for white glass, amber glass and green glass

Old glass containers for amber glass, green glass and white glass

Old glass emptying in Wiener Neustadt , Austria

Instructions for separating white glass in Vienna

Used glass is packaging glass that is collected for recycling . For this purpose, the used glass bottles and canned jars (so-called hollow glass ) are collected in containers provided by municipalities or companies. These are emptied at regular intervals and the waste glass is brought to a processor via collection points, in order to finally be returned to the batch as a ready-to-use raw material in a glassworks of the hollow glass industry. Glassworks can also operate their own processing plants.

Old glass is mainly used in the production of new packaging glass, which saves large amounts of energy and raw materials. For this it is necessary that the glass is single-type. This is made possible by separate collection (white, green and amber glass) in glass containers and fully automatic sorting.

→ Main article : Glass recycling

Ceramics such as earthenware and porcelain cause major problems when melted and are not part of waste glass. Throwing in other glasses such as window , mirror , opal , laboratory and other special glasses is also not desired by glass recyclers because they have special glass compositions . The same applies to pure drinking glasses or glass cookware (" Jenaer Glas "), which therefore do not belong in waste glass containers. Basically only glass belongs in the glass container, but some disposal companies expressly allow it to be thrown in with a cap / lid (e.g. in Dortmund, Mannheim and Trier).

In Austria , used glass is collected separately according to colored and uncolored glass packaging. There are around 80,000 collection containers on used glass packaging (white glass and stained glass).

In 2003 and 2004, the following quantities of old glass were collected and recycled:

• Germany (2004): 2,116,000 tons, which corresponds to 25.8 kg per inhabitant. After the introduction of the can deposit in 2004, the quota decreased by 2.4%.
• Austria (2003): 206,000 tons (of an estimated 240,000 tons of waste glass).
• Switzerland (2003): 301,433 tonnes (of 315,060 tonnes of packaging glass used), return rate 95.7%.
• United Kingdom (2003): 900,000 tonnes (out of an estimated 3.25 million tonnes of waste glass produced).

Web links

Commons : Glass recycling  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: waste glass  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

• www.was-passt-ins-altglas.de
• www.vetrum.ch: Description of the collection logistics
• www.agr.at: Austria-Glas-Recycling
• www.bobbybottle.at: Glass recycling, explained for children

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Was-passt-ins-altglas.de , Federal Glasindustrie eV , accessed April 14, 2013.
2. ^ Disposal Dortmund GmbH : waste glass container , accessed on June 21, 2013.
3. ^ Waste Management Mannheim : Waste from A to Z - City of Mannheim (PDF; 2.5 MB); accessed on August 27, 2015.
4. ^ ART - Zweckverband Abfallwirtschaft Region Trier : Closures are allowed in the glass container , accessed on June 21, 2013.
5. ↑ 2003 figures from Vetrorecycling AG .