J&B Recycling Knowledge

Glass is infinitely recyclable and can be re-melted without reducing its quality. The UK has a high recycling rate for glass, at 74.2%, which is one of the highest rates for any packaging material. However, it is essential to ensure glass is recycled correctly and placed in the correct recycling bin to avoid waste contamination. Whether glass can go into Dry Mixed Recycling (DMR) depends on whether you are a household or a business, the volume of glass recycling you produce and who collects and processes your waste. There are also some glass products, such as light bulbs, drinking glasses, and Pyrex that can't be recycled in the normal way. Any glass jars should also have the lid removed to allow for efficient recycling.

Can I Put Glass in My Recycling Bin at Home?

For kerbside, or household recycling, generally glass should not enter the dry mixed recycling and always be placed into a separate glass recycling container. This is in line with regulations specified by local authorities, so check the guidance from your local council. Glass can shatter during transit, which poses a safety hazard to workers and increases the risk of waste contamination. Broken glass fragments can contaminate other recyclable materials and specialist equipment and a skilled team is required to efficiently recover it.

Can I Put Glass in my DMR Business Waste?

Businesses that Generate a High Volume of Glass Waste

Some businesses generate a lot of glass waste. This could be those in the hospitality trade such as pubs, restaurants, bars and cafes, or demolition and construction companies that require flat glass from windows to be recycled. These businesses should have a dedicated large wheelie bin, container or skip to contain the glass, which can be collected by J&B Recycling and transferred to our recovery facility for processing. Segregating the glass in this way boosts recycling rates, which helps businesses become more environmentally responsible and reduces the cost of their waste management. Glass is heavy and the overall weight of your bins influences your waste disposal costs. Keeping glass out of your general waste and within its own recycling bin can reduce the weight and costs of general waste disposal. However, there are some considerations as this is only practical if your business will fill a bin with glass.

Businesses that Generate a Small Amount of Glass Waste

For businesses that generate a small amount of glass waste, such as glass bottles or coffee jars from staff rooms, we recommend this glass is kept out of the general waste to help reduce waste to landfill and to keep waste management costs down. Unlike other waste collectors, J&B Recycling has its own award-winning Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) with state-of-the-art equipment that is able to efficiently and safely sift out shards of broken glass for processing. Our recycling processes are amongst the most efficient available, and with 99% of waste recycled we generate almost zero waste through the recycling process, while producing the highest quality recycled materials.

Glass Collection North East

J&B Recycling provides specialist glass collection for many trades in the North East including hospitality, retail and construction. Our end-to-end waste management services include guidance on front end bin solutions, flexible collection schedules, the efficient handling of all waste streams, bin hire of large wheelie bins, containers and skips and transparent reporting, giving you peace of mind that your waste is being handled responsibly. Our reliable collection service ensures that your glass waste is collected on time, every time, minimising disruptions to your business operations.