Tips on Recycling Brown Glass

Brown glass almost always comes in some form of a bottle or jar, in which case disposal should not be difficult. You can use Earth911 to find facilities near you that accept brown glass, or check with your local waste management facility.

How It Is Recycled

Once collected and sorted, facilities crush the glass, remove impurities such as paper and metal, and distribute the purified crushed glass (cullet) to manufacturers. Depending on the quality of the cullet, it will be reprocessed as a variety of products.

• High-quality cullet will be used to make glass containers, abrasives, fiberglass or beads.
• Lower quality cullet may be used as insulation, road aggregate or decorative tile.
• Manufacturers want to recycle glass, because it reduces their costs with respect to materials, energy output and carbon emissions.

Reducing the demand for raw materials also eases the need to mine these materials, thus preserving natural landscapes.