But, competition for collected material could limit the expected growth.
 Brown glass is a valuable commodity for Rockware Glass, but the company fears losing material to the aggregates industry |
The company has released its 2006 Sustainable Development report, reporting that the amount of recycled glass going through the company's plants increased from 223,023 tonnes in 2004 to 284,824 last year.
Rockware said there is potential at its sites to use much more glass. Glass container manufacturers are keen to increase the amount of recycled glass used in the making of new glass because it can help cut hefty energy bills.
The company said that using recycled glass means that less energy is needed than when virgin material is used.
Education leader Joanne Hollins told letsrecycle.com: “In the long term we want to be recycling as much as possible in all our plants and with increased education aimed at local authorities we should be recycling much more by 2008.”
The 2008 date marks the next set of European packaging recovery targets, which will require UK-based packaging producers to support a 60% recycling rate for waste glass bottles and jars.
Competition
One of the issues that may stand in the way of Rockware reaching its expectations for using recycled glass will be the increasing competition for material with alternative market companies.
Rockware's collection partner Berryman said glass collectors are losing some of their material to aggregates companies, despite the fact that a report published earlier this year suggested an environmental downside to recycled glass being used in building products compared to the container industry (see letsrecycle.com story).
Brian Head, south east recycling development manager for Berryman, said: “A lot of local authorities are now collecting mixed glass, which we need to sort. Because of this extra cost we pay a little less than if we were buying the materials individually. Aggregates companies are not affected by mixed collections so their prices will remain the same whatever is collected.
“Valuable”
“There is an excess of green glass in the UK, but when aggregates companies use mixed glass we lose brown glass, which is valuable to us,” he added.
Mr Head also said that he felt there was a place for glass into aggregates, but it should be after the glass recyclers have taken out the materials that are valuable and that will have a positive effect on the environment.
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