A post-consumer glass recycling initiative developed jointly by integral blinds manufacturer Morley Glass and Saint-Gobain Glass is in the running for a G23 Award in the Sustainability Initiative of the Year category.
Under the initiative, post-consumer IGUs are collected from installers by Morley Glass drivers at no cost when they deliver new Uni-Blinds integral blind units, and these are then crushed to create cullet (crushed glass) back at its Leeds site. The cullet is bagged into one-tonne bags which are collected by Saint-Gobain Glass who then transport the cullet to their glass factory at Eggborough near Selby.
To date, more than 1,300 tonnes of cullet has been diverted away from going to landfill which has saved the need for more than 1,700 tonnes of sand in the glass-making process and cut CO2 emissions by over 1,000 tonnes. The service is also helping installers save thousands of pounds every year on their waste disposal costs because they require fewer landfill skips.
Ian Short, MD of Morley Glass said, “In partnership with Saint-Gobain we’ve developed a model that we hope others can adopt across the country, giving the industry a viable process to end the wasteful and potentially costly practice of simply throwing post-consumer sealed units into the general waste skip.”
Another dimension to the glass recycling initiative is that every penny generated through the production of cullet is placed into a fund called GreenVision to help charities, groups and individuals who are working to improve their local community through environmental or social projects. Grants of £500 are awarded to anyone who qualifies, and so far, it has benefitted good causes ranging from ‘village in bloom’ groups to budding sportsmen and women and a scheme to support young entrepreneurs.
