Ardagh is one of the UK’s biggest glass manufacturers and supplier to many of the world’s leading food and drinks companies. Friends of Glass has learned that they have recently signed a 15-year agreement with West Yorkshire-based processor Reuse to increase glass recycling by investing in new colour-sorting technology
This new technology enables much better recovery of glass as it begins its recycling journey , for example glass particles as small as 4mm can now be successfully separated by colour, as compared with only 10mm previously.
As Sharon Crayton, head of marketing at Ardagh Glass, Europe explains “We have been producing green bottles that contain over 90 per cent recycled glass for many years, but high recycling levels for clear (flint) glass have previously posed a challenge due to difficulties in colour separating clear glass back to a pure enough colour for reuse. This new technology helps us to significantly increase the recycled content for clear bottles and jars”.
Don’t forget, you can help turn old bottles and jars into new ones too. Just drop off your empties at the nearest glass bank and pop them into the right colour-coded holes. It can take just 30 days to transform this old glass into new bottles and jars on the store shelf.
