NEWS ITEM

Major glass recycling a real success in Wiltshire

Glass Recycling a real success!

Recyclers in Wiltshire clocked up a smashing 1600 tonnes of glass bottles and jars over the Christmas and New Year period – more than ever before.

Wiltshire County Council waste services manager Andy Conn was delighted with the record breaking good news, which shows a 60% increase on last year’s seasonal recycling.

“I think it clearly shows recycling is becoming a way of life to all of us – glass
is a particularly valuable resource to recycle as it can be reprocessed again and again without any effect on its quality and performance. The majority of recycled glass in the UK (80%) is used to make new bottles and jars so it’s nice to know that this year’s seasonal tipples could be helping make the bottles and jars for next year,” he said.

The record recycling comes as a new television advertising campaign is launched to encourage people to recycle even more glass bottles and jars.

Narrated for the first time by actress Jane Horrocks, the ad welcomes back the animated Recycle Now family as featured in previous campaigns, but this time focuses on the energy and resources that can be saved by making new glass bottles and jars from recycled glass. The ad will run through January and February.

In Wiltshire, glass collected through the black box kerbside collections and through the county’s recycling centres is sorted at the materials recycling facility (MRF) at Lower Compton near Calne. The glass is taken from there to Yorkshire where it is recycled.

The MRF is run by county council waste contractors Hills and sorts recyclables like plastics, glass and cans. It also features a recycling centre open to the public, a landfill site and a composting facility where the county’s garden waste is turned into Soil Association approved compost.

Around 2.5 million tonnes of glass bottles and jars are used each year in the UK, and in 2005 we recycled more than 1.2 million tonnes of glass. Wiltshire produces an average of 800 tonnes of bottles and jars for recycling each month.

Recycling just one glass bottle saves enough energy to power a washing machine for ten minutes, a television for 15 minutes, a computer for 20 minutes or run a light bulb for almost an hour.

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