Using recycled glass takes 40 percent less energy than making products from all new materials. Today, almost 22 percent of the glass we produce is recycled.
Glass makes up about five percent of the municipal solid waste stream by weight, two percent by volume. Its used to package many food products: juices, jellies, vegetable oils, baby food, you name it.

After source reduction (using less glass to make a glass jar, for example), the best way to deal with glass trash is recycling. Unlike paper, burning glass in waste-to-energy plants is not a good alternative to recycling. Glass does not provide any heat energy for making steam or electricity. Paper burns in a waste-to-energy plant; glass just melts. Landfilling glass recovers none of its value either. So, recycling is usually the best choice.

Recycling glass is a relatively good energy saver. Using recycled glass to make new glass products requires 40 percent less energy than making it from all new materials. It saves energy because crushed glass, called cullet, melts at a lower temperature than the raw materials used to make glass. New glass is made from sand, soda ash, and limestone.
Old glass is easily made into new glass jars and bottles or into other glass products like fiberglass insulation. And unlike paper, glass jars and bottles can be recycled over and over again. The glass doesn’t wear out.
Preparing your used glass containers for recycling is easy. All you need to do is remove their lids or caps and rinse the containers in water. You don’t need to scrub off the labels, since they will burn up when the glass is melted down for recycling.
Most recyclers ask you to sort glass containers by color—clear, green, or amber (golden brown). Once glass has been colored, the color cannot be removed. That means a maker of clear glass jars cannot use colored cullet. Why do some manufacturers package their foods and beverages in green or amber colored glass containers? The colored glass protects some sensitive foods and beverages from light.

	You cannot recycle all glass products. Light bulbs, ceramics, glass mirrors, many windowpanes, and dishes are not made with the same materials as glass jars and bottles, so in many curbside programs they can not be mixed in with glass recyclables. Still, it’s the bottles and jars that we throw away every day, not the light bulbs and dishes, that make up most of our trash.