WRAP reports show expanding opportunities for recycled glass

Three reports published today (Tuesday) by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) highlight the rapid growth of recycled glass in the UK and the scope for further development.

The newly updated version of WRAP's Recycled Glass Market Study and Standards Review, reveals that in the 12 months since the original report was carried out by Enviros, there has been considerable development in both low and high value markets for recycled glass, including shot blasting abrasives and concrete products.

The second report, entitled Foam Glass Market Survey, concludes that there is significant potential for foam glass products and that investment in the transfer of existing technology from Europe presents the most economically viable way forward.

Waste Flat Glass from the Demolition and Replacement Window Industries, the final report, was commissioned to identify sources of waste flat glass and timber and PVC-U profiles that are suitable for collection and recycling. The research highlights the substantial quantities of glass and other materials that are currently being sent to landfill.

"WRAP's R&D work is starting to generate real demand in a number of high value applications," said Andy Dawe, WRAP's material sector manager for glass. "We will continue to ensure that these results are exploited to the full by industry and at the same time facilitate the collection of sufficient glass of all types to meet the growing demand."

WRAP's targets for glass, to be achieved by 2004, include recycling 35% (770,000 tonnes) of municipal waste glass per annum; and absorbing an additional 100,000 tonnes per year of recovered glass through new uses.