Some Information Regarding the Recycling of Glass

Because of how heavy glass is compared to its price on the commodity market, it is currently not feasible to ship glass from the Yukon to southern processors. Raven Recycling Society therefore is attempting to crush as much glass as possible for reuse as sand on winter roads, as well as gravel. Even with this partial reuse of glass, it is still a lot more environmentally friendly to buy products in aluminum cans for instance, which can be recycled infinitely. Hopefully in the future we can look forward to glass recycling industry near the Yukon.

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.

A modern glass bottle would take 4000 years or more to decompose — and even longer if it’s in the landfill.

Mining and transporting raw materials for glass produces about 385 pounds of waste for every ton of glass that is made. If recycled glass is substituted for half of the raw materials, the waste is cut by more than 80%.

• The typical glass processing facility can recycle up to 20 tons of glass per hour.
• Glass containers produced today are 40 percent lighter than when they were 20 years ago, making them much easier to recycle.
• Every ton of glass that is recycled results in one ton of raw materials saved to process new glass, including: 1,300 pounds of sand, 410 pounds of soda ash and 380 pounds of limestone.
• The typical glass container is made up of as much as 70 percent recycled glass.
• It is estimated that 80 percent of recycled glass, as a whole, will end up as new glass containers.
• Unlike other substances such as paper, glass can be recycled infinitely without any loss of purity or quality. This is also true with aluminum.
• A glass bottle can take up to one million years to breakdown.
• A recycled glass container can go from a recycling bin to a store shelf in as little as 30 days