Glass recycling: It is reckoned that glass makes up about 8% in weight of UK household rubbish, so if we don't recycle this adds up to a large amount of landfill. furthermore using recycling glass also saves significant amounts of energy in the maufacturing and raw materials extraction process.
The materials needed to make glass are relatively plentiful and therefore cheap, but large amounts are needed to manufacture new glass and their extraction consumes energy and quarrying scars or landscapes. The primary raw materials are sand (72%), Soda ash (14%) and Limestone (12%) which are melted in furnaces which need to generate temperatures of over 1500 degrees Celcius, which as you can imagine also consumes considerable amounts of energy. Using recycled glass saves on raw materials - for every tonne of recyceld glass re-used in a furnace more than its equivalent weight of raw materials is saved along with the energy asocisted with extraction. In addition much less energy is required in the melting down and reformation of recycled glass than in the product of new glass.
It doesn't take much effort to sort out glass from your rubbish and as ever if everybody does their bit it can add up to big energy and associated Greenhouse emissions savings. You may be lucky enough to live in an area where there are galss collection schemes in operation , but even if not all local recycling centres have glass recycling facilities as do many supermarkets car parks and community centres.