Mansfield District Council has smashed targets it set for glass recycling three years ahead of schedule and within a year of starting free kerbside collections.
As the authority geared up for its first Greener and Cleaner Festival to be held tomorrow in the Market Place, latest figures showed the council had collected 2,328 tonnes of glass in April 2022, after starting kerbside collections on 5 April 2021.
Before starting its new wheelie bin service, the council set a target of collecting 1,800 tonnes in the first year and 2,000 tonnes in years two and three.
All the glass collected in Mansfield is melted down and recycled into new bottles and jars at a factory West Yorkshire which uses state-of-the-art technology so that any piece of glass bigger than a 20p piece can be identified and colour separated.
Glass industry figures suggest that turning glass into new bottles produces fewer carbon emissions and has a positive impact of reducing global warming as well as using fewer natural resources as glass can be recycled again and again without any loss of quality.
The European glass federation, FEVE, estimates that every tonne of recycled glass produces 670 fewer kilograms of carbon dioxide than new glass which means Mansfield has saved over 1,500 tonnes of CO² than if the glass had gone to landfill or been incinerated and had to be replaced with new glass.
Cllr Andy Burgin, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Leisure, said: "This is a really fabulous achievement especially as the effects of the pandemic have caused disruption to waste and recycling services over the past year.
"It is great to see the council's Cleaner and Greener strategy, which includes reducing our carbon emissions, is now starting to deliver results.
"We hope to collect even more glass in the future as there are still some households in the district which are putting their glass in green household waste bins instead of the glass bins."
The free black and teal coloured wheelie bins were delivered to more than 43,000 homes across the district to accept empty and clean glass jars (without lids) and bottles of any colour. Flats and complexes received communal glass bins.
The glass collections are every eight weeks and residents were sent a personalised calendar, showing their collection dates for the rest of this year alongside a calendar showing the collection pattern for their green household waste and blue recycling bins. They can also sign up for bin day email reminders and check their bin days online (link opens in new window).
For a small number of households were kerbside collections and glass wheelie bins cannot be provided due to a lack of space or access, glass recycling remains an option at existing bottle banks across the district.
The kerbside collections cannot accept pyrex, mirrors, drinking glasses or light bulbs and these should be taken to the nearest recycling centre or placed in the household waste bin.
For more information about recycling, visit the council website (link opens in new window). Don't forget recycling counts towards your points in the county's Green Rewards scheme. Find out about that at on the Green Rewards website (link opens in new window).