Bottle Alley Glass: Recycled glass has come a long way

Well, I wasn’t wowed by Grand Designs Live.  It does seem a step up from the Ideal Home Show, but I wasn’t expecting all the hawkers of knives and whatever.  I also saw little that was advertised as eco-friendly, which really surprised me given the way that’s emphasized on the TV show.  And no Kevin.  However, if you’re in the market for a gazebo, they had a lot of choices.

There was one interesting find.  Bottle Alley Glass offers glass products (tiles, worktops, lighting, etc) “made totally from glass recovered from household and commercial waste.”   

It seems that it has taken a while for recycled glass production to get to the point of producing sheet glass that can be used on worktops/countertops, so I find this to be a very exciting development.  The product is beautiful and has many application possibilities.

What they say:

“Glass makes up around 7% of the average household dustbin and in 2001 over 2.5 million tonnes of this material was landfilled…. Glass is unique in that it can be recycled indefinitely without loss of quality.…Making glass creates gas and CO2, but recycling glass into new products has several environmental benefits:

• Energy saving
• Lower emissions
• Reduced landfill
• Less quarrying

If recycled glass is used to make new bottle and jars, the energy needed in the furnace is greatly reduced. After accounting for the transport and processing needed, 315kg of CO2 is saved per tonne of glass melted.  Recycling two bottles saves enough energy to boil water for five cups of tea.”

What I wonder:

This product has some strong eco credentials.  However, to have a better understanding of the product’s life cycle, some more information would be helpful.  For example, what transportation is involved in sourcing the raw materials (recycled glass)?  The offices are in the UK (East Sussex).  Is the manufacturing plant in the same location?  I suspect it is, which would make this a local product (to London and England).  It could be even more eco if green energy is used; maybe it is but I couldn’t find anything on their website about that.  Finally, what happens when the product has finished its life? It presumably can’t be recycled with household recycling waste.  Will the company take back the glass to be reused?