glass Archives - Transfire

Investigation into the composition of commercial glass reveals energy saving potential

TransFIRe researchers from the Sheffield Hallam University have been investigating the composition of commercial glass currently present in the UK market following a lack of recent research and data on the subject. The study involved sampling and analysing the compositions of over 30 commercial container and float glass samples from the UK market and found a number of different properties within the glass that could bring about significant potential for energy saving in its production. Based on the results obtained from the compositional analysis, the performance of these commercial glasses was evaluated using multiple analysis methods and property models. These analyses reveal that glasses of the same colour and function exhibit different properties, with a difference in the estimated melting temperature (Log 2 viscosity) of over 20 degrees Celsius in some cases. Fig.1 Melting temperature difference between current UK container glasses: 21oC. At present, there is a [...]

Could a national glass bottle return and refill scheme work in the UK? An industry perspective

In 2019, the UK recovered 71% of single-use glass by mass, but only around 36% was used to make new container glass. This low circular rate is partly because the UK has a mixed collection system which requires the glass to be sorted into different colours before remelting and results in less cullet (waste glass for remelting) returned than in separated colour collection. Much of the glass is therefore used in aggregates for roads, resulting in nearly 50% of potential cullet not being used for new container glass bottles. The international nature of glass production and trade also means a large percentage of the bottles manufactured in the UK, particularly clear bottles, are exported for recycling, resulting in a loss of materials over which the industry has control. These and other challenges to circular-loop recycling of container glass raise the question of why there are not large-scale national refill [...]