In Europe each year, around 1.2M tonnes of glass waste is generated by the demolition & renovation of buildings. With new buildings, glass is brought to the construction site ready to fit & waste produced during cutting to size in the factory is recycled by the glass processing plants. Today, most of the waste glass ends up as landfill. However, glass is inherently an inert material & is not detrimental to the environment when brought to landfill sites. In fact, glass appears in the EC list of waste acceptable at landfills for inert waste without testing. Although all glass can be remelted & recycled, in comparison with container glass, post consumer flat glass is not being systematically recycled. This article looks at various recycling routes for flat glass.
