All glass bottles and jars from the glass containers are recycled.
We collect glass packaging separately from residual waste. This way, it can be recycled. You can take it to a glass container. There's always one near you, for example, in your neighborhood or at the shopping center. (Glass) jars and bottles that have contained food, drinks, or cosmetics are allowed in the glass container. Make sure the packaging is empty. You can leave the lids and caps on. Other small types of glass are considered residual wasteYou can offer large pieces of glass to one of the recycling centers.
Bottles and jars that are allowed in the glass container can be recognised by the glass container logo on the label.
Glass that you don't put in the bottle bank, but instead throw in the residual waste, isn't recycled but incinerated with the residual waste. This glass is lost forever. In the Netherlands, we already recycle 86% of all glass packaging. Our country is a global leader in glass recycling.
What belongs where?
For your convenience, we have listed the separation rules for packaging glass.
Yes, in the glass container
Glass bottles, such as:
- wine bottles
- beer bottles without deposit
- bottles of spirits (note: no stoneware jars)
- bottles of fruit juice, syrup and concentrated juice (made of glass)
Packaging glass, such as:
- jam jars
- spaghetti sauce bottles or jars
- olive oil bottles
- mayonnaise jars
- sambal pots
- herb pots
- cream jars made of transparent glass
- glass yogurt pots
- glass baby food jars
Not in the glass container
When residual waste
- light bulbs
- drinking glasses
- stone jars (for example, gin)
- shards of glass
- tableware (such as coffee and tea cups and plates (porcelain))
To the recycling center
- car windows, windows, window glass and other flat glass (in the special flat glass container)
- fluorescent lamps
- shower wall
- wired glass
- reinforced glass
- fiberglass insulation material
- glass wool insulation material
- halogen lamps
- heat-resistant glass (such as oven dishes)
- perspex
- decorative glass too big for the glass container
- energy-saving lamp
- mirrors
- stone jars (gin)
- UV lamps
- vase (glass or other material)
- tanning lamps
Glass in the glass container is recycling
Glass is infinitely and 100% recyclable. New glass bottles and jars are made from shards. This can be done endlessly. Because once glass is made, it remains glass forever and retains its excellent quality.
The cycle of glass
The cycle works as follows. We collect the glass from the glass containers using a collection truck. The white (colorless) glass goes into one compartment of the truck, and the other colors (green, brown) go into the other. This way, the glass remains separated by color, just as you did in the glass container. The collection truck transports the glass to the specialized glass recycling company.
At this company, the glass goes through a complete process, passing through advanced separators. Contaminants such as lids, heat-resistant glass, ceramics, stone, and porcelain are removed from the glass. You contribute significantly to an efficient recycling process if you only put packaging glass in the glass container and not any other waste. After the food residue has been removed from the shards, the clean shards are sent to the glass factories as raw material. The glass factory melts the shards and makes new bottles and jars from them. The bottles and jars are then sent to the food industry, where they package the products you purchase. After use, you return the bottles and jars to the glass container, starting the entire recycling process over again.
21 kilos of glass per person, 430 million kilos in total
Thanks to this cycle, every piece of cullet from the bottle bank remains in the glass packaging chain. In our country, 86% of the glass that enters the market is collected for recycling. This amounts to an average of 21 kilos per person, or 430 million kilos of glass in total—every year. By recycling glass, glass factories save on primary raw materials (sand, soda, and lime) for glass production: 1 ton of cullet saves 1,2 tons of sand and other raw materials. And for every 10% of cullet used, they save 2,5% in energy, and thus CO2 emissions. One ton of cullet saves 0,6 tons of CO2-emissions in the chain.