In France, 1.5 million tonnes of glass are collected and recycled each year, contributing up to 80% of the raw materials used to manufacture coloured glass. Recycling clear glass is, however, still li…
In France, 1.5 million tonnes of glass are collected and recycled each year, contributing up to 80% of the raw materials used to manufacture coloured glass. Recycling clear glass is, however, still limited in France because of the non-selective collection of glass. In order to help develop the recycling of clear glass, the French glass giant Saint-Gobain, in association with Eco-Emballages, has carried out two pilot selective glass collection operations. At the beginning of March 1997, it installed 150 bottle banks for uncoloured glass in about 100 hypermarkets in the Ile-de-France area around Paris. A second experiment was carried out for a hundred communes near Meaux, just east of the French capital, with the installation of special collecting units for uncoloured glass. This pilot operation collected 8 to 10 kilograms of uncoloured glass per capita per year. The error rate (coloured glass placed in clear glass containers and vice versa) per user was 8%, while Saint-Gobain expected an error rate of 15%.