Glass bottles and jars
We don't provide glass kerbside collection, but householders can recycle glass in a number of ways.
How to recycle glass bottles and jars
You can recycle your glass bottles and jars at recycling centres and at over 200 recycling points located at:
- Supermarket and car parks
- Sheltered housing complexes
- Communal points for flats
- Other public places
These are in place to make sure we can keep high quality glass recycling.
Whenever possible, take your glass bottles and jars with you when you go out, this saves making a extra trips.
Empty glass is much lighter but together can be heavy. If you recycle it often, it’s easier to carry.
Neighbourhood glass recycling points
To make recycling more convenient, we have added extra neighbourhood glass points. Each point has three bins for clear, brown, and green glass. If your bottle or jar is a non-standard colour (not clear, brown, or green), please put it in either the brown or green bin.
These small neighbourhood points are for local residents only, not for general public use. If you think your area needs another a glass recycling point contact Wasteline and we will discuss the options available with you.
Why we don’t accept glass with other recycling
When glass is mixed with other recycling, it often breaks into small pieces.
These are hard to separate and sort back into colours, which makes it difficult to recycle them into new bottles or jars.
Most glass from mixed recycling ends up being used as aggregate (for example, in road building). This is a lower-quality recycling process because the glass can only be used once.
By keeping glass separate, we can recycle it into new bottles and jars again and again.
The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 allow mixed glass collection if it achieves the same quality as separate collection. We can’t guarantee that the same quality can be achieved in mixed recycling, so we keep glass separate.
Limits on collecting glass another way
It would be possible to run a separate household glass collection, but this would be very expensive as a separate fleet of lorries would be needed. The cost of providing a separate kerbside collection service for glass would be around £3 million a year.
Why recycle glass bottle and jars
If you put glass in your waste bin, it will go to landfill with the other residual waste.
Whilst residual waste may be treated to remove some recyclables, the majority of it still ends up in landfill. Please try to recycle your glass wherever possible. Not only is this better for the environment, it is cheaper to recycle than it is to landfill.
For more information on the method we use for glass recycling visit the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) website.