What Are the Methods of Recycling and Reusing Glass Bottles?

For the sustainable use of resources, we can recycle and reuse glass bottles, and turn waste into treasure. In order to make better use of waste glass bottles, it is necessary for us to understand the following methods and precautions for recycling glass bottles.

Prototype reuse means that after recycling, the glass bottle is still used as a packaging container, which can be divided into two forms: the use of the same packaging and the use of more packaging. The prototype reuse of glass bottle packaging is mainly for low-value and large-use commodity packagings, such as beer bottles, soda bottles, soy sauce bottles, vinegar bottles, and some canned bottles.

The prototype reuse method saves the cost of quartz raw materials consumed when manufacturing new bottles and avoids the generation of a large amount of exhaust gas, which is worthy of promotion. The disadvantage is that it consumes a lot of water and energy, and the required expenses must be included in the cost budget when using this method.

Recycling of raw materials refers to the utilization of various glass bottle packaging wastes that cannot be reused as raw materials for the manufacture of various glass products. The glass products here are not only glass packaging products, but also product wastes such as other building materials and daily glass products.

Appropriate addition of cullet helps the manufacture of glass because cullet can be melted at a lower humidity compared with other raw materials. Therefore, less heat is required for recycling glass bottles, and the wear of the furnace body can be reduced.

Tests have shown that the use of recycled secondary materials can save 38% of energy, 50% of air pollution, 20% of water pollution, and 90% of waste compared to using raw materials to make glass products. Since the glass regeneration process has very little loss and can be recycled repeatedly, its economic and ecological benefits are very significant.

Reinvented refers to the use of recycled packaging glass bottles for the remanufacturing of similar or similar packaging bottles.

This is essentially a recycling of semi-finished raw materials for glass bottle manufacturing. The specific operation is to perform preliminary cleaning, washing, and color classification of the recycled glass bottles; then, re-melting, which is the same as the original manufacturing procedure, and will not be described in detail here; finally, the recycled materials are blown; finally the refurbished materials are used to manufacture various glass packaging bottles through different processes such as blowing and adsorption.

Recycling furnace regeneration is a method suitable for recycling various glass bottles that are difficult to reuse or cannot be reused (such as broken glass bottles). This method consumes more energy than the prototype reuse method.

Among the above three recycling methods, the prototype reuse method is the most ideal, which is an energy-saving and economical recycling method.

When using waste glass packaging bottles (or broken glass frit) for the reuse of raw materials for glass products, attention should be paid to the following issues.

Impurities such as metal and ceramics must be removed from recycled glass bottles because glass container manufacturers need to use high-purity raw materials. For example, metal lids in the cullet may form oxides that interfere with the operation of the furnace; ceramics, and other foreign substances from a shortcoming in the production of containers.

In the recycling process, color is also a problem. Because colored glass cannot be used in the manufacture of colorless flint glass, and only 10% of green or flint glass is allowed to be added when producing amber glass, the cullet after consumption must be selected manually or by machine. If the broken glass is used directly without color picking, it can only be used to produce light green glass containers.

It can be seen from the above that, unlike plastic bottles, glass bottles cannot be recycled after being discarded, and the use-value brought by glass containers is long-term. If you have a demand for glass containers, you can learn about them by searching for related products on our website.

DAS Packaging is an experienced glass packaging and container manufacturer. We are committed to providing users with comprehensive customized services and effective solutions. In order to ensure the quality of our products, we are equipped with a professional production team and quality inspection system. Our thoughtful one-stop shopping service has also won praise and trust from many customers. If you are interested in our products, please contact us immediately!