Glass is a friend when it comes to reducing landfill waste

We recently came across an article on BBC website which shares some new shocking statistics on plastic pollution and how Earth is slowly becoming a 'Planet Plastic'.

US scientists have calculated the total amount of plastic ever made and put the number at 8.3 billion tonnes. The 8.3 billion tonnes is as heavy as 25,000 Empire State Building in New York, or a billion elephants.

“We are rapidly heading towards ‘Planet Plastic’, and if we don’t want to live on that kind of world then we may have to rethink how we use some materials, in particular plastic.” Dr Roland Geyer told BBC News.

He also added: “We need a radical shift in how we deal with plastic waste. On current trends, it will take until 2060 before more plastic gets recycled than landfilled and lost to the environment. That clearly is too slow; we can’t wait that long”.

One easy place to start is in our choice of packaging. By choosing to buy your favourite food and drink in glass, we can do our bit to ensure more is recycled rather than dumped. Did you know that glass is one of the most sustainable types of packaging? Glass is inert and made from three simple ingredients: sand, limestone and soda ash and can be recycled over and over again without any loss in quality.

Everyone can help the environment and waste reduction by recycling their glass jars and bottles. Why not start making the difference today? Recycling doesn’t have to be hard either! Check if your local council sorts your glass into separate compartments on the recycling truck next time it collects from your doorstep. If it doesn’t, take your empty bottles and jars to the nearest bottle bank as this helps ensure the highest quality recyclable glass is obtained. You can find your nearest glass bank on https://www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling by simply typing in your postcode (UK only).