Campaign aims to keep glass waste rubbish-free

Campaign aims to keep glass waste rubbish-free

The Just Glass Campaign aims to cut the rubbish found within deliveries of glass to the recycling plant by 80 per cent by educating Islanders, as well as enabling parishes and glass collection firms to reject waste that is too contaminated.

To help raise awareness every household will receive a leaflet explaining what can and cannot go in the glass bin and advice will also be posted on communal bottle banks.

From November, deliveries to La Collette will be rejected if they contain an unacceptable amount of material which is not glass. Glass collection firms will also be given tags which they can attach to household bins that are too contaminated to explain why collection was refused.

Emma Richardson-Calladine, recycling manager, said the Island’s waste-glass recycling process is unsustainable due to the levels of plastic bags, broken crockery, cardboard and lightbulbs which are being thrown in glass bins.

She added: ‘We have a great opportunity to use recycled glass instead of buying aggregate material to filter and control the water flow to our reclaimed land, and to use it in a range of other ecologically-friendly ways, but only if Islanders use their glass bins just for glass.

‘At the moment glass is mixed with plastic bags and general rubbish.

‘The glass is sorted and cleaned but the process is not sustainable. Glass cannot be thrown away with general rubbish because it causes huge mechanical issues in the Energy from Waste plant, so it has to be separated for recycling, and our message is that just glass should go into the glass bin.’

An animation showing the process of turning waste bottles and jars into building material can be viewed on the Rethink Your Waste Jersey Facebook page.

*For more information about glass collection and recycling visit gov.je and search recycling.

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