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“Singing” glass bottles inspire millennials to recycle 

1 min

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5 Ways To Use Glass For Your Halloween Decorations At Home

With Halloween right around the bend, we’d like to share 5 ways to use glass around the house for your decorations. Nifty, crafty, and sometimes outright spine-chilling, these ideas will leave your house ready for the big day – the 31st of October!

2 min

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Join us in celebrating the International Year of Glass 

1 min

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5 ways you can help close the glass loop

We all have a part to play in building a more sustainable world, starting with how we shop, all the way down to how we get rid of our rubbish. This summer, organisations involved in all stages of the glass collection and recycling value chain have launched Close the Glass Loop – a major glass recycling action plan for Europe.

3 min

About Friends of Glass

Friends of Glass is a community that supports all things glass packaging, as part of a more intentional lifestyle that starts with our everyday choices.

Learn more about us

Why Glass?

Learn why we love glass, and why we’re dedicated to promoting its numerous benefits to people all over the world.

Learn more about why

Take Action

Join a growing community of people who care about a better planet and a healthier lifestyle.

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Stories

Hear stories from the community, and discover all the reasons why choosing glass is better for us, as part of a more intentional lifestyle.

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Glass is an item so integrated into daily life that quite often people don’t realize how omnipresent it actually is.

From before man, to long into the future, glass will always be around.

Past

Glass has been around since before the origin of man. Obsidian, a naturally occurring form of glass, is often found within the mouth of volcanoes as a result of sand coming in contact with high temperature. Glass used by humans, however, goes all the way back to 4,000 BC in the form of glazing for stone beads.

Fast forward to 1500 BC in Egypt, when the first glass container was created. Methodology for creating these original forms of glass packaging varied from glass blowing to coving over a solid core.

Present

Modern glass making has incorporated technological advances to maintain quality and design of the product. Glass plants are able to make millions of glass containers per day in a variety of colours.

With a growing awareness of the link between waste and climate change, recycling glass packaging and containers saves them from being sent to landfills and mixing with other raw materials, ultimately saving energy.

Future

Given the basic natural elements of glass, it will always be around, but advances and technology is changing the material to become more durable and lightweight. Also, glass is starting to become more and more involved in different applications, for example as a transmission of information in opto-electronic devices as well as devices in the medical and scientific sectors.

The uses of glass are endless, and there isn’t a substance that better keeps out toxins and other chemical from leeching into our bodies. See this video to see more about how Glass Remains Glass.

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Discover how you can make an impact

From how we live at home to how we show up for the planet, our everyday choices can be the starting point for a more sustainable future.

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