2023-10-16 18:21:00
The bottle bank is a good alternative to the deposit system. But telling what can and cannot go in the glass container is still very necessary.
The amount for the deposit or a logo for the bottle bank is stated on the back of a glass bottle or jar. In the Netherlands, 950 million kilos of packaging glass are used annually. More than half of this (mainly beer bottles) goes back to the factory via the deposit system. The rest largely ends up in the bottle bank. According to Recycling Netherlands, just over 80 percent of all packaging glass is reused in some way.
Returning glass to the manufacturer by charging a deposit is more sustainable than recycling via the bottle bank, says Nicolien van Loon of the information organization Milieu Centraal. “We are a big supporter of deposits. Almost 100 percent of the deposit glass that leaves the factory also returns. So it is very effective.”
Peter Verweij thinks so too. He is the founder of the young company Pakt Packaging. It is a shame to throw beautiful glass jars and bottles in the bottle bank and make new ones, he says. Making glass using molten old glass is up to 25 percent more sustainable in terms of energy consumption than making glass from new raw materials. Reuse scores much better. That requires 70 to 80 percent less energy. In addition to the direct energy costs of the melting furnace and the car wash, Verweij also includes the transport costs of the glass shards or empty pots.
A beer bottle goes back and forth 40 times
In order to be able to reuse more glass, manufacturers of jars and bottles must bring better glass to the market, says Verweij. “Of course the glass manufacturer has no interest in that. They prefer to keep selling new glass.” Beer manufacturers do set a good example. According to him, a beer bottle goes back and forth between the customer and the factory regarding 40 times.
Pakt Packaging now collects milk bottles and jars for applesauce, for example, takes them through the car wash and returns them to the manufacturer. A successful trial was conducted with 40,000 pots. The trick, says Verweij, is to collect enough pots of the same type to fill a car wash and a truck.
Many varieties of jars and bottles
Precisely for the reason Verweij mentions, deposits are difficult, says Huco Knape. He is commercial director of Maltha, the largest glass recycling company in the Netherlands and a subsidiary of Renewi, which processes the shards from the glass bins and delivers them clean to the glass factory. “There are many varieties of jars and bottles,” he says. “To properly arrange reuse, you need as much identical packaging as possible. The jars and bottles must be cleaned in such a way that they meet the requirements of the food industry and you must also collect the empty packaging in remote corners of the Netherlands.”
It works well in the beer sector. It is tradition there, Knape explains. They started it early. Everything is designed for it, from storage capacity to cleaning machines. “Deposits are nice, but you have to look carefully at where it is possible and where it is not. There are many snags.”
That is why Huco Knape attaches importance to the bottle bank as a good alternative. By the way, a deposit bottle or jar does not last forever and ultimately ends up in glass recycling, so that it can be melted down into new glass.
There is no need to rinse a pot at home
It helps if citizens know what can and cannot go in the bottle bank. Because even though the bottle bank has been around for forty years, it is still a challenge to explain it properly. Very major problems with contaminated contents of the bottle bank rarely occur. Each ton of shards sent to the glass factory may contain a maximum of 25 grams of contamination. That is why Knape says: “We like the glass to be as clean as possible.” The company cleans the glass and delivers it in small pieces to a glass factory, where it is melted in ovens into new glass. By using this old material instead of new raw materials, carbon dioxide emissions are 670 kilos lower per ton of glass cullet.
It helps if the green and brown bottles don’t end up with the white ones, and vice versa. If this does happen, the glass must be tinted at the factory and the less that is necessary, the better. Coloring from green to brown or from brown to green is less drastic and therefore these two types are allowed together.
Consumers do not have to clean jars and bottles at home. The shards are dried in the recycling factory so that the contamination falls off. The dirt is then extracted. Metal lids that were still on the jars and bottles are removed with a magnet. Plastic lids are difficult to separate in the factory and are therefore not allowed in the glass container (but with plastic, of course).
A flower vase does not belong in the bottle bank
And then you have the different types of glass. Sometimes you see a glass flower vase next to the glass container that does not fit through the hole. Wrong twice. The bringer should have taken that thing home once more. But also: it doesn’t belong in the bottle bank. This type of glass has a different composition and cannot be recycled together with packaging glass. This also applies to flat glass (window glass) and drinking glasses.
The most annoying thing for the recycling plant is ‘ksp’, says Knape. This is the technical term for ceramics, stone and porcelain. “Citizens do not always know what to do with a gin jug and sometimes we even see a cup or saucer in the bottle bank. This material can shatter into thousands of pieces. If you want to blow it away, usable pieces of glass are also taken with it and that is a shame.”
Reuse via a deposit is therefore not easy, but this also applies to recycling via the bottle bank. If everything goes according to the regulations, recycling will become easier, says Knape. Maltha has new posters ready that municipalities can use to inform citizens, he adds.
Also read:
Used glass jars can also go through the car wash, a start-up is now working on this
The new company Pakt will collect, sort, wash and reuse glass jars. A trial with 40,000 pots is optimistic. ‘We want to make the bottle bank redundant.’
More glass needs to be recycled, with the help of citizens
Glass packaging manufacturers have been unable to recycle enough glass for years and thus comply with the law. The Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) now demands that 800 glass bins be added in the coming years. That can help, but the citizen must cooperate.
The Green Guide section answers practical questions regarding environmentally conscious living. Read previous episodes here.
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