New Bottles, Glasses
or Jewelry From
Recycled Glass

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Did you know that recycled glass could be used and recycled again and again? But at the present time only 25% of our glass containers are being recycled.

According to Earthworks Group we throw away 28 billion bottles and jars every year. They are responsible for 5.2% of our solid waste by weight. With so many communities implementing recycling programs shouldn't we be seeing more glass being recycled?

We should but there are some problems in the recycling system itself.

Many communities have chosen to use a single source recycling system which has the effect of making it easier on us to recycle. All we have to do is put all our recyclables in one container and our job is done. This only works if whoever is picking up our recycling is doing a good job in sorting.

Each community recycling program can vary and you should contact yours if you are uncertain what needs to be done.

They may ask you to:

Separate glass in to different colored glass.

Recycle only glass from containers and bottles.

Rinse the containers.

Keep bottle caps and other non glass items out of the glass.

Once our recyclables have been picked up, they are sent to be sorted. Plastic, paper, aluminum or glass each needing to be handled differently. Glass that has not been sorted properly can contaminate the whole load, making it unsuitable for new containers or bottles.

New Glass From Old Glass.

Clear glass makes more clear glass, brown glass makes brown glass and green glass makes more green glass. They aren't mixed when making new containers because each different type of glass has different melting points. To make new bottles or containers manufacturers need uniform materials. They know what the glass will do when heated and remelted.

The same with a bottle cap, a piece of ceramics or mirrors that get mixed in. They may have different melting points and react differently to the process, messing it up or contaminating the whole load. Making less glass available for new bottles and containers. It may even result in costly equipment problems.

Big benefits of recycling glass in to new containers When recycled glass is used to make new containers, furnace emissions can be reduced 15 to 20% and there is a saving of 25 to 30% in energy usage. With the quantity of glass being made each year that adds up to impressive reductions in carbon dioxide. Plus there is less glass to contribute to our landfills.

Uses For Mixed Waste Glass

Fortunately, many uses have been found for waste glass. Mixed glass is ground up and much of this material ends up as glassfault for parking lots and driveways, road filler or landfill cover.

Some companies find new uses for this glass in creating glass tiles, flooring or counter tops. Enviroglass has created a material that can be used for counter tops and flooring that utilizes glass from many sources such as window glass, mirrors or bottles and creating a material that is safe, healthy and lasts forever. As you might expect it is not inexpensive but for some it may be worth it for it's beauty and long lasting appeal.

Recycled Glass Jewelry

My favorite choices for recycled glass jewelry come from fair trade producers. One World Projects offers colorful glass jewelry made by African artisans. The actual glass making process is carried out by the men while women are responsible for the design and assembly of the pieces.

eShopAfrica sells not only completed jewelry but also the individual beads made by their fair trade artisans. You can see the process by clicking on their link. They told me that the artisans are particularly proud of their beads and they are one of their bestsellers.

Your purchase helps provide good incomes for African people in many disadvantaged areas.

In a slightly different approach to melting glass for beads is the jewelry offered at Uncommon Goods using cut pieces of recycled glass and silver. Beautiful glass that has depth and color, check out these pieces and see for yourself.

Paloma Pottery uses a combination of ceramics and recycled glass to create some very unique and pretty jewelry. Colored glass is melted on a ceramic base that has a swirl pattern. The effect of the crackled glass on the ceramic provides depth while the light playing on the angles of the glass make it sparkle.

You will also find an interesting selection of items from dinnerware, key chains, tables, soap dishes and more. Check out their unique use of recycled glass.

A Few Other Ideas

Glass can be recycled as glass gravel or glass rocks which can be used for a variety of landscape or other creative applications. Glass Rocks manufactures these in many colors.

Green Glass is growing rapidly because of a process they developed to reuse colored glass bottles. It involves cutting the bottles into two pieces at about the halfway point, flaring the opening to form a base for one glass with the other cut section forming a tumbler. (click on their link above to see what I mean.) Beautiful glasses reusing every part of the bottle with no waste.

A great selection of recycled glass dinnerware can be found at Natural Spaces. Wonderfully colorful and unique, this dinnerware would make any table special. That they're made from recycled glass makes them that much more special.

As you can see the recycling we are doing can really benefit the environment and the use of recycled glass in so many different ways makes glass a truly sustainable material.