There have been a number of changes in the market structure supporting container glass recycling over the last 10 years. Consumers Glass used to be the main purchaser of container glass in the eighties and early nineties. This proved to be good for Consumers Glass and great for the early adopters of the blue box programme. Consumers Glass developed a partnership approach with municipalities and assured them that any container glass collected that met specification standards would have a guaranteed market. Both parties benefited from this stability. In fact it was so stable as to even be boring. While other commodities showed the dramatic rise and fall that is consistent or normal, "good old" container glass was there without change, month after month. While some complained about the monotony in the glass market it was what the early adopters requested and it did prove to enable municipalities to plan longer term.
The glass market has changed, an opportunity that was partly due to Consumers Glass' early-stage steadfast support. Nowadays there are many more market opportunities, there are new players called "glass processors" and there are many more options for recycling glass containers. Glass Works thought that an update would be helpful.
These 7 companies buy much of the recycled glass containers available from curbside and deposit/return programme operations. They supply the traditional end-markets such as Consumers Glass and the fibreglass market with processed container glass to meet specific raw material requirements. |
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However, there are many municipalities which are too far away from these markets to ship the material economically, or have small quantities of container glass. There has to be other options for these municipalities that meet environmental and economic considerations. Glass Works believes that an Idea Centre, an exchange forum to support the development of sustainable options for container glass, is necessary. Read more about the Idea Centre below, or visit the Idea Centre. |
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