The recycling challenge has begun. During the recent Environment Week, the Friends of Glass movement launched a campaign for the retrieval of glass bottles in six European capitals, including Italy. T…
The recycling challenge has begun. During the recent Environment Week, the Friends of Glass movement launched a campaign for the retrieval of glass bottles in six European capitals, including Italy. The invitation was clear – recycle more. The appeal started from the social network Twitter with the name TweetRecycle Challenge. The initiative will last three months and will have the aim of recycling enough glass containers to illuminate Rome for five minutes (to illuminate London for five minutes more than 75,000 glass containers are needed). In Europe, the initiative will also include London, Paris, Madrid, Lisbon and Berlin. According to recent research from FEVE, the European Glass Container Federation, Italians choose glass for products such as wine and beer, preferred, respectively, by 92% and 87% of those interviewed, while 75% choose glass containers for sauces and 74% for dressings. Our survey, which involved more than 6,000 consumers in Italy and in all Europe, highlights that glass containers are chosen mainly for reasons connected to safety and health, design and respect of the environment, says Adeline Farrelly, FEVE“s general secretary. According to the Co.Re.Ve. (Consorzio Recupero Vetro – Glass Retrieval Consortium), two bottles out of three were recycled in Italy in 2008. In fact, 1.39 million tons of glass packaging waste, equal to 65% of consumer packaging, were recycled in 2008, an increase of 6.6% compared to 2007. The average recycling rate in Europe is 62%. Each project aimed at spreading and supporting the benefits of recycling represents an initiative for the wellbeing of everyone, as well as being a sure help for the environment, says Giorgio De Giovanni, director of Assovetro, Associazione Nazionale degli Industriali del Vetro – National Association of Glass Industries. Glass containers are the most used for the preservation of any product, in particular for food and beverages. Glass is also an ecological material and its recycling at glassworks enables to obtain significant environmental and energetic advantages, such as the reduction of energy consumption and CO2, as well as that of raw materials used. All details regarding the TweetRecycle Challenge can be found on the Friends of Glass blog (bloginabottle.com) and on Facebook – Friends of Glass. Registering to Twitter it is also possible to take part in the initiative. To take active part it is necessary to insert the number of glass containers recycled, to receive live updated regarding the TweetRecycle Challenge. There will also be a weekly update regarding the number of people registered and a forum in which it will be possible to exchange information and advice on recycling. To be part of Friends of Glass, co to http://www.friendsofglass.com, now also in Italian.