Recycling glass bottles

Recycling Glass Bottles

by Amy

I wonder where all the old bottles and crushed bottles go? What are the recycled glass bottles used for after the cycle when it is recycled and melted? What are the new glass bottles made from?

New glass bottles are made from silica sand. The silica sand is melted in a high temperature furnace. Recycled glass bottles can be made very similar but costing less and using up less natural resources.

The process starts when people take all their used glass bottles, containers and jars to a bottle bank. Then the glass bottles, containers and jars are all taken by a truck or lorry to the recycling plant. At the ‘recycling plant’, all the bottle caps or lids are detached. After all the bottle caps have been detached, the glass of the bottles, containers and jars, are crushed into fragments.

Have you wondered where the crushed glass goes? The crushed glass is then taken to the bottle factory by a lorry or truck. Then the crushed glass is mixed with a small amount of silica sand. When the silica sand and the crushed glass is mixed, it is then melted in a lower temperature than the new glass in a furnace.

Out of the furnace, is the hot liquid glass. Then the hot liquid glass is transferred into a machinery that make the hot liquid glass into bottles. Recycled glass is as strong as new glass. Glass can be recycled a lot of times without losing its quality.