Glasmo is predicting that during 1998, more green glass cullet will be produced than the UK industry will be able to absorb. The onset of this problem has so far been delayed by increasing production of green glass containers in the UK, improving colour separation in bottle bank glass and a lack of expansion in the tonnages of bottle bank cullet. The green cullet balance is complicated by the varying rates of production of the industry's green furnaces and by furnace shutdowns during maintenance. Levels of green cullet are currently high since some furnaces are running more slowly than usual. However, the current levels are containable. Yet as bottle bank collections increase further, it will become impossible for the additional green tonnages to be bought by the glass container manufacturers.
