Recycling Glass

• Choose glass over plastic: more local authorities recycle glass than plastic.
• If possible, buy bottled drinks in glass containers that you can take back to be reused.
• Remember that container glass is a raw material. Today's juice bottle may be tomorrow's jam jar.

That's all very well. Most of us are aware that glass has among the highest recovery rates of any type of packaging material. There are bottle banks, curbside glass collection schemes, kabariwalas (trash collectors) who go from door to door picking up used bottles, jars and other stuff, or some such retrieval system in most parts of the world. But are the glass-related ''green tips'' applicable here in the Emirates? There have to be glass collection and recycling facilities in the first place.

Fortunately for us, there are. Altajir Glass Industries, Jebel Ali, Dubai, make glass for the local market and for export. They also buy back and recycle whatever used glass is collected and brought to them. Altajir has assigned the responsibility of post-consumer glass collection to Dubai-based Clean Earth Establishment, which is also authorised by Dubai Municipality to do the same. Says A.P. Laitu, deputy manager (commercial), Altajir Glass, ''Here, there is no organised system for used glass collection. Earlier, we tried to gather glass from apartment blocks, using the help of security guards. But this didn't work out. Now we use the services of Clean Earth.'' This is good news, for it is a criminal waste throwing glass away when there are facilities to melt it down and recycle it.

Clean Earth Establishment has, for the last year-and-a half, been picking up, sorting by colour, cleaning (removing grime, metal caps and neck rings) and supplying bottles and jars to Altajir for use as cullet (crushed recycled glass). Cullet is combined with virgin raw materials - silica sand, soda ash, and limestone - in the glass manufacturing process. That's how today's coffee jar can become tomorrow's pickle bottle! Coke bottle today, Pepsi bottle tomorrow!

The collection pit at Altajr Glass Industries, Jebel Ali

Glass quality is consistently maintained.

Glass has long been considered an environment-friendly packaging material. People prefer glass for foods and beverages for many reasons. For one, it's purity: it preserves taste and flavour best, and contains no chemicals or substances that can harm the environment. Next, its 100% recyclability: when a glass container is crushed, it has virtually returned to its natural state and is ready to be converted into another container. This recycling process can continue indefinitely, a container being reused over and over again to make new ones while maintaining its original properties. Besides, the use of recycled glass reduces: the very considerable amounts of energy needed for glass making; energy required in producing and transporting raw materials to manufacturing plants; and the quantity of virgin materials used. And let's not forget the landfill space saved when glass is recycled - on an average, 449 kg of broken glass occupies one cubic metre. Finally, the best thing about glass containers is that they can be returnable (example, bottles of thick glass used for fizzy drinks), so they may be cleaned and reused a number of times before recycling. Unfortunately, the lightweight (200 grams) non-returnable bottles are popular here, although in many countries the heavier (400 grams) returnable ones are being promoted as a means of combating the ecological problems of solid wastes disposal.

In Dubai, glass collection for recycling is fairly new. Public awareness about it received a fillip when the Emirates Environmental Group launched a campaign during the Clean up the World event in September last year. Today, Clean Earth Establishment collects about 15 tonnes per month of used glass. By colour they must be white/clear and green only; and the containers, glass bottles and jars only, because these are the ones Altajir recycles. They are picked up from recycling centres - Safa Park, Union Cooperative (Jumeirah), Spinneys (Jumeirah) and Hamriya shopping centre - educational institutions (some 7-8 schools, Zayed University, Higher Colleges of Technology), and restaurants, clubs and hotels (Le Meridien, Pyramids and Planet Hollywood, to mention a few). Plans are afoot to increase the collection amount to 50 tonnes per month by setting up new collection centres, their own bins, tapping all hotels and shopping malls, and most importantly, getting households to cooperate.

This is how we can help: Take our glass containers (if we don't need to reuse them at home) to any of the currently four recycling centres (mentioned above) that Clean Earth collects from. Our collection should include just container glass - bottles and jars used for beverages and foods. It must not include such items as heat resistant bowls, oven and microwave cookware, crystal ware, china, porcelain, ceramics, mirrors, light bulbs, window glass, etc. If we can form a group-collection of at least 1000 bottles, then Clean Earth Establishment would be willing to pick these up. But if we have only small quantities, we need to drop them off at the centres ourselves.

Glass is a resource that can be used again and again, forever. Dumping it in the general refuse - in our apartment block garbage rooms (that are without separate waste bins for segregated waste), or a common rubbish skip - means that we send a valuable resource to the landfill. Wasted and lost for all time.

WHAT ON EARTH CAN WE DO? Buy in bulk so as to reduce frequency of purchase. And when choosing packaging material, consider its reusability and recyclability. Glass, aluminium, pet (plastic) and paper, all are recyclable, and being recycled in Dubai. After reusing packaging at home to the maximum extent possible, we need to take our used containers to recycling centres from where they can be collected by recyclers. For glass we need to go to centres at: safa park, union cooperative (jumeirah), spinneys (jumeirah) and hamriya shopping centre. And for paper cartons, aluminium cans and pet we can use any of 20 recycling centres in dubai. To find out which is the closest recycling centre to our residence, call dubai municipality at 04-2282227 or 04-2285735.

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