Waste glass disposal.

[Mike]

Morning all,

Not sure if this has been covered before but was wondering what eveyone else does with their waste glass. We used to have it collected free by a recycling firm (in old clean oil drums) they no longer are in business and we're stuggling with what to do with it.

Just spoke to a local recycling firm who said "Your type of glass isn't recyclable,we can only recycle bottle and jars". never heard that before. Spoke to Biffa and their not keen on glass as "Their Depot can't handle it". I don't have room by the workshop for a skip as it's in a complex.Any suggestions or contacts would be gratefully appreciated.

Mike.

[Vix]

Hi Mike

Glass & Mirror do a re-cycling service which works out about a £1 per week. They provide you with plastic crates, which they exchange everytime you get your next delivery. This is the best deal that we've found and seems to work ok with us.

Vix.

[Mike]

Hi Vix,

Thanks for your reply,tried Mirror and Glass for glass sales,they say we're too far into deepest Wales for their Van to deliver!.

Regards,Mike.

[WelshFramer]

I cut it into small pieces, put it into a cardboard box and chuck it in the dustbin.

[Spit]

I've just started making mosaics by painting the back of the bits various colours & sticking them onto MDF. Hey presto, instant art.

[Bill Henry]

The glass we use contains lead, so regular recyclers won’t touch it – something to do with kids, mental retardation, and wildebeeste migration, I think.

The only municipality anywhere near me that will take leaded glass is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, nearly 50 miles away through the heart of Boston. I don’t have the resources to drive all that way.

In my case, unfortunately, our glass ends up in a landfill.

[kev@frames]

Mike, speak to Biffa again! Who do you think take away most of the bottles and glass in bins from pubs clubs and hotels, round here - Biffa.

They take ours, but we have to rent a separate red bin.

I believe it goes to landfill, but i think the official line is "if its separate, it can be recycled, so it meets someone's recycling target somewhere".

We used to have it taken away in a full size dumpster, but they kept breaking

[Townsend]

I have one of those tall coal scuttles into which I deposit my waste glass. A 3ft length of steel pipe serves as a stress defuser and glass smasher. I simply pour the resulting finely broken glass into our local recycling bin.......our recycled glass is used in road materials rather than for new glass bottles. It makes a great sound as it empties into the big bin!

[JFeig]

Bill, I was told by Guardian Glass that it is Boron in the glass that makes it not acceptable for bottle recycling. If we all had the money we would be using lead crystal glass. Anyways, it is some trace element that is at fault.

The main reason told me by Guardian Glass is that they have enough cullet (recycle from glass with visual defects and cut-offs) from their own production to make into float glass. However the main reason they conveyed is MONEY. Float glass furnaces are run 24/7/365 for about 20 years before they are shut down for relining of all the fire bricks. If they were to accept scrap glass with any contamination, they would have to run that furnace for a week or more to flush out the bad stuff.... or shut down the furnace and rebuild. That would cost them mega millions.

You commented on glass being used to pave roads as aggragate. That is the only recycling use I have heard of as well.

[avantime]

Surely hey could use the re-cycled glass for horticultural production?

[kev@frames]

I have one of those tall coal scuttles into which I deposit my waste glass. A 3ft length of steel pipe serves as a stress defuser and glass smasher. I simply pour the resulting finely broken glass into our local recycling bin.......our recycled glass is used in road materials rather than for new glass bottles. It makes a great sound as it empties into the big bin!

i find it unbelievable that so many of you guys illegally put trade waste into domestic recycling or the tip, and get away with it!

I pay almost 1 percent of my turnover in trade waste removal charges. Around £2,000 last year (EX VAT), £200 of which was for removing cullet. But i guess thats less than I'd spend in petrol and time messing around at the tip or dodging CCTV cameras at the recycling centre every other day. We fill a 240 litre bin with crushed cullet every 10 working days.

I believe they do mix it with the other recycled glass (domestic) anyway and also grind it for roadfill

Mike- Correction on the Biffa thing, i checked today and we DO rent the glass bin from Biffa, but its someone else who comes to collect it.

[framejunkie]

Yes there are precious few uses for crushed glass, except melting it and making poor quality glassware(always too much contamination). One other use of cullet that i know of is a composite of glass and epoxy resin.

http://www.eightinch.co.uk/

I declare an interest as the company is run by a friend of mine. In fact i used to work for him when he was starting up. Making and fitting kitchen and bar counters was hard work, but worth it when people asked me what i do - 'I'm a counter-fitter' - sounds cool, when spoken, but written down... less cool

[griff buch]

Hi Mike

Glass & Mirror do a re-cycling service which works out about a £1 per week. They provide you with plastic crates, which they exchange everytime you get your next delivery. This is the best deal that we've found and seems to work ok with us.

Vix.

I tried to sign up to this service earier in the year but was advised that they were not taking any more customers - they were undergoing their takeover by Wessex at the time. I don't know if there is any change; I must find out.
Whilst I am on, I'm also getting really fed up with my waste contractor- poorer service and doubling of charges in two years I have now cancelled my contract but was 1 week within the 3 MONTHS so I had to go another year. I have found a local contractor who will do a better service at half the price (not Biffa). Mid Sussex council are looking into setting up a recycling of cardboard service for commercial use.

[TTC]

Mid Sussex council are looking into setting up a recycling of cardboard service for commercial use.

Certainly in our part of West Sussex, the area covered by Worthing Borough Council all glass goes into the standard metal dustbins along with all other trade waste and anything else classed as refuse. The cost for three metal bins is appx £250 for the year for a weekly collection. So anything that leaves the premises as 'rubbish' is collected in those bins without the need to segregate different materials.

[WelshFramer]

Just taken a look at the Powys website. They offer a trade refuse service by the bag - buy a roll of 23 trade refuse bags for about £44. If you seperate out card and other recyclables then they have different coloured bags for half that price.

Looks quite good except they don't say how big the bags are.

[Odems]

Perhaps you can make a seal with the local lumper who collects your alu-scrap. Their always hot for that scrap....

[WelshFramer]

Perhaps you can make a seal with the local lumper who collects your alu-scrap. Their always hot for that scrap....

Round here the only people who collect scrap are the council dustmen.

If anyone has anything substantial to get rid of they generally dig a hole and bury it - or throw it down the side of a mountain.

[kev@frames]

A chap who worked for me years ago buried several fridges in his garden, then two land rovers..... in pieces. Amazing really, he rented the house

Old mineshafts are where most stuff ends up here. Good place for shoplifters too.

we also have the green bags on a roll (biffa) but they work out more expensive on by volume than a dumpster lift. Plus there is a seagull problem locally. anything in a bag gets ripped open by seagulls, then of course you areliable for te litter as well.

I just had my waste transfer agreement from biffa, apparently we are not allowed to put old flourescent tubes in the bin any more, as they have to be recycled and taken away in one piece.

Unless they are broken, i suppose

paper and board for recycling is supposed to have a value of £100 per tonne, glass only £30 per tonne. Yet almost all of our waste is mountboard offcuts. I estimate one dumpster a week, 500 litres, must be around a quarter of a tonne, so a tonne a month = £1200 worth of recyclable board going into landfill - it is a shame we are not legally allowed to put it into the public recycling bins, then we would not only be doing ourseleves a favour, we'd be raising money for the local authority, and saving the planet (etc).

This is what happens when regulations are formed around avoiding penalties from the EU, rather than applying commonsense or even commercial sense to waste.

[kev@frames]

Thinking about it, it does raise a serious point about recycling, by not accepting good recyclable trade waste, are the local authorities failing to recycle efficiently?

[WelshFramer]

it is a shame we are not legally allowed to put it into the public recycling bins, then we would not only be doing ourseleves a favour, we'd be raising money for the local authority, and saving the planet (etc).

Maybe you could sell it to someone at 1p per load then they could put it in the recycling bin - wouldn't be trade refuse that way.

Round our way some of the recycling bins are operated on behalf of charities - our village hall, for example, earns money from the recycling bins in its car park. I'm sure one of the committee members would be happy to buy my offcuts for a nominal amount and put them in the bin - if only they had a cardboard recycling bin. Unfortunately they only do glass and aluminium (it's a very small car park).