Friends of Glass UK organised a competition with Portsmouth City Council to highlight how important and easy it is to recycle glass bottles and jars.
Every day local authorities across the UK have to spend money disposing of household waste that could have been recycled. For example, last year in Portsmouth residents only recycled around half of their glass packaging. This meant that 2,500 thousand tonnes of glass had to be sent to landfill – costing the council £100,000. Imagine what that money could have been spent on if all that glass had been recycled.
It’s a similar picture across most of the UK.
And of course, all that glass is 100% recyclable. It can be made back into new bottles and jars over and over again – saving energy and raw materials, and reducing CO2 emissions.
In the Portsmouth competition residents were challenged to find six of the city’s network of glass banks that had been specially decorated, and share photos of themselves recycling. The space invaders themed design featured on the glass banks, created by Portsmouth resident Andy Beech, highlight how recycling can wipe out waste.
While the big winners are the city and the environment – three Portsmouth residents also won Love to Shop vouchers for their efforts. The top prize of £150 of vouchers went to Rachel Hales, who found all six decorated glass banks situated around Portsmouth and took photos of her daughters posing with them. Elaine Willoughby and Andrew Campbell also found all six decorated glass banks and won £50 worth vouchers each.
By getting involved and sharing their photos all of the completion entrants helped to remind their friends and community how easy it is to recycle. As one of the entrants said, the glass banks just popped up in all the places they went!
Brook Hayes of Friends of Glass said:
“We were delighted by the enthusiasm of the entries for this fun competition which carries an important message. We urge all residents of Portsmouth to be inspired by the space invader banks and remember that by recycling glass, you are helping to wipe out waste – both in terms of resources and money.”
Vincent Venus, Service Manager in Waste Management at Portsmouth City Council who provided the prizes, said:
“The treasure hunt proved a great way of getting people to look out for and recycle at these unusual glass banks. We think the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, once a GP based in Portsmouth would have approved and had his most creation detective Sherlock Holmes would have to agree that remembering to always recycle glass really is ‘elementary’!” to save your area money.”
Below are some of the entries:
Why is wine stored in glass?
Glass bottles remain the best choice for wine lovers. New research showed that 94% of consumers in France prefer glass wine bottles over other packaging materials, such as bag-in-box. But why is it that we think of glass when we think of wine? Or why do we often store them horizontally? And are wine bottles sustainable?
What glass can you recycle?
More people than ever are recycling and we couldn’t be happier – as the glass industry, we love to be able to use recycled glass when we manufacture new containers. However, not all varieties can be used in production.
#EndlessCycle: How does recycling glass help protect the environment?
Have you ever wondered how glass is recycled? What happens to your used glass after you’ve put it into the bottle bank? The good news is that every single one of us can make a difference.
