Two years ago the Euro 2004 event saw UK football fans getting through 163 million glass bottles of beer and other drinks at home. In pubs consumption also soared and glass reprocessors saw a 10% overall increase in collections of waste glass packaging.
” Not many organisations collect from pubs and clubs because it is expensive “
– Ron England, Glass Recycling UK
This year's World Cup tournament will be a longer competition than the European championship – and this week's “Big Recycle” campaign will bring extra awareness among football fans of the need to recycle their glass.
However, some reprocessors have told letsrecycle.com that the collection infrastructure for recycling glass bottles from pubs and bars is insufficient to take full advantage of the extra material.
Ron England, environmental manager at Glass Recycling UK, said: “Not many organisations collect from pubs and clubs because it is expensive and with the pubs certain to be filled full of supporters, there is a danger that the potential increase in collections will be lower than expected.”
Legacy
Since Euro 2004, the national collection scheme for licensed premises, “Recycle More Glass”, came to a halt in March last year (see letsrecycle.com story). Operator Valpak found the scheme expensive to run and sold it to glass recycling firm Berryman.
Berryman ran the service for two years before deciding it was not commercially viable, and has since said it had passed on much of the collection services to local firms.
Mick Keogh, general manager at Berryman, said this week that the legacy of the scheme would be sufficient to recycle significant quantities of World Cup glass, particularly from major urban areas.
He said: “We still operate collections from licensed premises through several contractors, although it is not branded. The schemes cover most major conurbations and there will still be a large collection from pubs during this tournament.”
However, bar operators in South London told letsrecycle.com that it was difficult to get glass collected separately for a reasonable fee.
Local authorities
” We have had to suspend the official launch of our glass collections to cope with the glass that we already collecting“
– Rosemary Stevens, Dacorum district council
Some local authorities and their collection contractors have been forced to rethink their glass recycling arrangements with the tournament coming up.
Tim Gent, managing director at Nottinghamshire-based glass collector Recresco, warned if the weather remains good, more householders will be dropping off glass at bring banks, and where no weekend collections are provided, material will build up.
He said: “Tuesday to Friday is not a problem, but there are no weekend collections so we will need to keep our eyes on Monday collections.”
One local authority which recently started up a new glass collection isDacorum district council in Hertfordshire (see letsrecycle.com story), but the council has now decided to delay the official launch of the scheme – and related publicity – until after the World Cup.
The council's waste development officer, Rosemary Stevens, said the council was already collecting double the amount of glass expected.
She said: “We have had to suspend the official launch of our glass collections to cope with the glass that we already collecting. We have already started the collections but we are not making it too well known at this point in time.”
Prices
Despite the surge in additional material, prices offered for recycled glass are not expected to change, since glass reprocessors are keen to take in as much recycled material as possible. High energy costs and Packaging Directive recycling targets are helping keep the market for recycled glass stable.
Demand remains highest for clear glass – because of the state of the British manufacturing industry, much of the green glass arising must be exported to markets abroad.
Glass Recycling UK's Ron England said: “We would prefer to have clear glass, but a lot depends on what drinks the supermarkets put on offer. People tend to follow the price rather than the drink. If we get a good price on clear bottle drinks that would help a great deal.”
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