Drinking Glasses

mrbrightside11 · 17-05-2021 10:30am #1

Hi all

Does anyone know if I can recycle drinking glasses? Can I bring them to the clear bottle bank? Or even put them in the green bin? Thinking it might be a different type of glass.

Thanks

Capt'n Midnight · 17-05-2021 12:08pm

mrbrightside11 wrote: »

Hi all

Does anyone know if I can recycle drinking glasses? Can I bring them to the clear bottle bank? Or even put them in the green bin? Thinking it might be a different type of glass.

Thanks

AFAIK you can't put lead glass or stuff like PYREX (doesn't melt easily) , just cheap and cheerful soda glass

Check on your local authority page or https://www.mywaste.ie/

hirondelle · 17-05-2021 1:29pm

No glass of any type in the domestic recycxling bin- it will contaminate the other materials (and this material goes on aconveyor and is part-sorted by hand).

As the Cpt'n has said, pyrex really messes up the glass recycling process so it definitely needs to be kept out of the recycling banks.

paddylonglegs · 17-05-2021 1:34pm

Is there no regulation on the components of glass used so they can be recyclable? Boggles the mind that a drinks bottle can be recycled but a drinking glass can’t.

ShauntaMetzel · 26-06-2021 9:44pm

Drinking glasses are usually designed by using chemicals. That's why you can't recycle them. But you can remodel them for decoration purpose.

magicbastarder · 26-06-2021 10:54pm

i recall reading (five or ten years ago) that ireland had no glass recycling facilities anyway, has this changed?

hirondelle · 28-06-2021 9:09am

magicbastarder wrote: »

i recall reading (five or ten years ago) that ireland had no glass recycling facilities anyway, has this changed?

There is a glass recycling facility in Fermanagh that deals with the bulks of the glass on the island (it used to be part of the Quinn group).

magicbastarder · 28-06-2021 9:38am

what does it do with the glass? glass fibre insulation?

hirondelle · 28-06-2021 10:26am

magicbastarder wrote: »

what does it do with the glass? glass fibre insulation?

No, it's a full 'proper' glass recycling facility. Glass is taken by contractors from the bottle banks, most of it is brought to Glasso's (they bought out Rehab's interest in the business) facility in Naas where it is crushed (technical name is now 'cullet'), put through very expensive equipment (conveyor belts, lasers to detect colour of glass, air jets to push contaminants out of the stream) and then the piles of segregated cullet are hauled to Fermanagh where it is melted down and turned into ...bottles and jars! Encirc is the comany that owns it now.

There is a joined-up plant in the UK where crushed glass goes in one end of the factory and filled bottles come out the other.

magicbastarder · 28-06-2021 11:21am

thank you, that's good to know.

crossmolinalad · 28-06-2021 1:00pm

Everything of glass if its not broken i bring it to a charity shop
cups and mugs our community centre would have it

Sam Russell · 28-09-2021 6:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117529599#Comment_117529599

I think the plant in Fernanagh is a glass bottle manufacturer. It is not a recycling plant - but it uses recycled glass as part of its process. If there is not enough recycled glass it has to import it.

The glass used to make glass food containers (bottles and jars) is a soda glass. The input to make such glass must contain some glass - minimum is about 30%, other wise glass does not form. The higher the proportion of old glass, the lower the energy needed to make the new glass.

Chemicals are added to colour the glass. The cheapest glass is green, hence its use for beer. The dearest is blue, hence you do not see much of it, with brown next. Brown is used to keep light out to preserve the contents.

Pyrex glass is a borosilicate glass that has a much higher melting point and screws up the furnace used for normal glass used for bottles = so do not put it or any non botte glass into the bottle banks. That goes for window glass as well.

hirondelle · 29-09-2021 3:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117951094#Comment_117951094

Fermanagh is where Glasso (previously Rehab,then Rehab Glassco and now plain old Glassco) recycle their glass. They have a plant in Naas where they deliver the contents of the bottle bank to, crush it and then sort by colour (optical scanning). The "cleaner" the glass from the banks in terms of colour separation, the less work in sorting on the conveyore belt- in other words, please DO separate the glas by colour. This crushed glass (cullet) is then hauled up to Fermanagh. Fermanagh takes in cullet and produces bottles. There is a plant in the UK that brings this a step further and they actually fill the bottles on site too.

Sam Russell · 29-09-2021 7:14pm

The Fermanagh plant was Quinn Glass.

The glass being recycled is food container glass - bottles and jam jars. It is sorted by colour and crushed. Now optical sorting might be used, but it is easier if it is separated before crushing.

If it is not a bottle or jar, it does not go into the bottle bank.

looksee · 19-10-2021 10:38pm

That was an interesting thread, thanks all. Information that could maybe be spread about a bit more.

Drinking Glasses

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