Morley Glass says it has now saved a thousand years’ worth of heating an average home its post-consumer glass recycling scheme run in conjunction with Saint-Gobain Glass.
The G23 Award-winning initiative has diverted more than 1,800 tonnes or 2,997 cubic metres of glass away from landfill through the collection of end-of-life IGUs (insulating glass units) collected from customers in the thre years since it was initiated.
To date, the scheme has also prevented around 1,400 tonnes of CO2 being emitted during the glass manufacturing process, and reduced the amount of sand – the main virgin raw material for glass – needed by 2,391 tonnes.
Managing director Ian Short said: “Most of us will appreciate how recycling materials such as glass reduces the demand for the planet’s resources, such as sand, but the energy savings achievable through recycling IGUs are perhaps less well known. When cullet is used in place of virgin raw materials like sand, less energy is needed to operate the furnace and this has enabled Saint-Gobain to develop a formula to show how much is saved when you use more cullet.
“Breaking through the 1,000 ‘energy years’ mark is an amazing achievement after just three years and hopefully this will encourage more installers to get involved with our glass recycling initiative. We offer a free collection service for end-of-life IGUs if we are delivering new orders of our Uni-Blinds® integral blinds, or if an installer is based in the Leeds area, which means installers can save money on their general waste disposal costs too.”
The glass recycling initiative also funds environmental and social improvement projects. The cullet produced by Morley Glass generates revenue which all goes into a fund called GreenVision. This enables Morley Glass to provide grants to charities, groups and individuals who are dedicated to improving their local communities. So far, over 170 grants have been awarded to support good causes including school vegetable growing projects, village in bloom groups and an initiative in Leeds which repairs and renovates unwanted bikes to donate back to the community.