Billions of glass bottles are ending up in the bin when they could be recycled, according to a press release by the California Dept Conservation. In 2002 alone, Californians bought an estimated 2.7BN bottles of beer and 700M other beverages sold in glass containers. But according to research, almost half of these are going into garbage bins instead of being recycled. Over the course of a year, this amounts to more than 1.6BN bottles. Recycling glass beverage containers in California carries significant monetary incentives for both consumers and businesses. The bottles thrown away each year are worth more than $70M in unclaimed California Revenue Value deposits. In response to the situation, the state Department of Conservation wants to raise awareness about the loss of glass and encourage bars and restaurants to implement recycling programmes.
