Recycle glass bottles and jars in wheelie bins

News | Community

Peterborough residents will be able to dispose of glass bottles and jars in their green recycling wheelie bins starting Monday 3 March 2008 – reducing the impact of dumping rubbish in landfill sites and driving Peterborough closer to becoming the UK’s Environmental Capital.

The introduction of the kerbside collection of glass bottles and jars follows a £1 million investment by Viridor Resources and Peterborough City Council to install special separating machinery into the city council’s materials recycling facility (MRF).

This will both increase efficiency in sorting materials for recycling and help Peterborough residents become greener by recycling more!

With residents’ help, the improved service could divert the estimated 2,800 tonnes of bottles and jars that are unnecessarily dumped into Dogsthorpe landfill each year. This will reduce resources, reduce the quarrying in open countryside, reduce the council’s cost in landfill charges and reduce the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on climate change.

The council is also encouraging residents to take their textiles to ‘clothing banks’ or donate them to charity collections or shops, as they will no longer be collected in the green bins. Using these methods will ensure that textiles are received in a clean and re-usable condition, avoiding textiles being sent to landfill.

Glass bottles and jars account for almost seven per cent of the weight in black household rubbish bins so the pioneering service has the potential to raise Peterborough’s recycling rate to over 50 per cent from a current level of 43 per cent.

Councillor Graham Murphy, Cabinet member for the environment, said: “This is an important milestone in the city council’s declared policy to push recycling rates beyond 65 per cent.

“I appeal to all residents to support our over-riding objective to protect the environment and utilise all aspects of their waste management services. It is calculated that every household in the UK uses on average 331 bottles and jars annually, so recovering that glass will not only make an important contribution to our recycling targets but help save energy too.

“If the average household recycled all their glass bottles and jars it would represent a saving of enough energy to power a washing machine for two-and-a-half days or power a computer for five days!”

The collected glass will be taken to the materials recycling centre, separated from other materials and sent for processing into new products. Old wine bottles and jars could become new bottles or used to make a lasting energy-saving contribution as new insulation materials or become aggregates for the construction of roads and car parks. The possibilities are endless.

Residents will still be able to dispose of glass bottles and jars at 30 bottles banks throughout the city if they prefer this method of recycling. At present, around 2,000 tonnes of bottles and jars are recycled through bottle banks.

Residents should deposit only bottles and jars in bottle banks or their household green recycling bins. Other types of glass, such as window glass, drinking glasses or heat-treated glass cooking utensils, are not suitable for the normal recycling process, so will need to be placed in the black bin. Fluorescent tubes and low-energy light bulbs contain mercury and should be taken to the householders’ recycling centre at Dogsthorpe for recycling.

Glass is 100 per cent recyclable but only 30 per cent of glass bottles and jars used in the UK are currently recycled. For more information visit www.britglass.org.uk

March 2008 - Peterborough UK Community Website