Glass can be recycled indefinitely as its structure does not deteriorate when reprocessed.
Many glass recyclers and collectors differentiate between different sorts of glass. For example, you would be asked to separate different coloured bottles into different bins.
However, often they cannot collect sheet glass or broken drinking glasses because lead is used in the process to ensure that your windows and wine glasses are perfectly clear. When recycled this would contaminate the glass that is used to produce bottles and jars.
Where glass is collected and separated as above, the 'cullet' (collected glass) is taken to a glass recycling plant where it is monitored for purity and contaminants are removed. The cullet is then crushed and added into a raw material mix in a melting furnace. It is then mechanically blown or molded into new jars or bottles.
By contrast, A.R.C. do not separate the glass into different types or colours. We send the glass cullet to be processed for the construction industry for aggregate and glassphalt. Glassphalt is a road-laying material which comprises around 30% recycled glass.
The benefit of this is that you do not have to sort your bottles by colour, you can also leave us glass from your windows or drinking glasses. However, like other glass recyclers, we are unable to take laminated glass, like the type used in shop windows or car windscreens.