A pioneering scheme for recycling post-consumer glass units has been recognised by the UK glass industry trade body, British Glass.
The initiative was named winner of the ‘Sustainable Practice’ award at the Glass Focus Awards 2021 in a ceremony attended by more than 100 people recently in central Manchester. Saint-Gobain Glass and Morley Glass triumphed in a highly competitive field which draws entrants from across the glass industry, from food and drink packaging and medical equipment to all aspects of glass used in construction.
The benefits of the initiative are far-reaching according to Morley MD Ian Short, pictured, centre left, said: “The initiative has been a huge success since we started in 2019, so much so that we have recently had to replace our original machinery with a fully automated plant that triples our glass processing capacity.
“To date the scheme has collected over 1,200 bags of glass cullet weighing more than 680 tonnes. This has reduced the need for virgin sand which is used in glass manufacturing by more than half a million kilos. But as every tonne of cullet saves 300kg of CO2 emissions, and the amount of energy needed to power the average home for six months, we have been able to make energy savings to date equivalent to 341 ‘energy years’ for the typical UK home.”
