From: Trey Granger, Earth 911, More from this Affiliate 
Published June 22, 2009 02:00 PM

The Truth About Glass Recycling

Before you deposit the next beer or wine bottle into your blue bin, here are a few things to know aboutrecycling your favorite sand-based product:

1. It has the quickest turnaround of any curbside product, back on store shelves in as little as 30 days
2. There’s a strong market for recycled glass, and the demand is not currently met
3. A good portion of glass that you place in your recycling bin is not actually recycled
What is Downcycling?

According to O-I Global, the leading glass manufacturer in North America, about 1.6 million tons of glass are downcycled, translating to almost 40 percent of the 4.2 million tons collected annually for recycling. Furthermore, this 4.2 million tons represents only 25 percent of total glass manufactured, as shown in the chart below.

Let's start by explaining what happens to all this glass that isn’t reprocessed into new containers. To do this, we need to understand the concept of downcycling.

Downcycling is the process by which materials are recycled into a product of lesser-quality. An example for glass containers would be fiberglass or using it as an additive in concrete or ceramic tiles. The decision to downcycle glass is usually based on the quality of material, but who makes that call?

"This is most often the decision of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF)," says Paul Smith, O-I’s Global Sourcing Manager of Cullet. "Aggregate use of glass is important but limited in application. The recycling rate through MRFs could improve."