Glass has been getting a fair amount of attention in the environmental news lately as several countries have figured out more efficient ways to recycle different types of glass. Government agencies have been tasked with looking into the ways in which the United Kingdom can become greener. The UK has been under fire over recent months after it was revealed that it would fail to meet many of the environmental objectives outlined by the European Union. The EU set specific guidelines and goals for all of its member nations to reduce waste and to increase their rates of recycling. Recently a scheme was launched which hopes to help the recycling of glass around the United Kingdom.
The first targets for recycling involving the carbon footprint of reprocessing will be introduced in the United Kingdom as soon as 2011. Defra, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs proposed to set differentiated targets for glass recycling based on the process that will be used. Targets for businesses would be established by whether or not the material was introduced into an open or closed loop process. Some ways of reprocessing glass have carbon savings while others do not. Sending glass for re-melting saves about .3 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of glass recycled, while glass sent for aggregates has no savings in carbon.
One of the ideas to raise recycling rates for glass is to incentivize the collection of glass meant for re-melting by offering higher value or voucher payments to those who properly separate.
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