Morley Glass & Glazing has passed an important carbon saving milestone in its CRUSH recycling initiative with Saint-Gobain Glass after it recorded the 200th tonne of crushed, post-consumer glass being collected and diverted away from landfill.
The achievement stems from the investment by the integral blinds specialist earlier this year in a dedicated recycling facility at its Leeds HQ and manufacturing site. This enables Morley Glass to take delivery of waste post-consumer glass removed during window and door replacement projects, which would ordinarily simply go to landfill, to be crushed before being sent for recycling and raises money for ‘green projects’ in the process.
Since the start of the initiative, Morley Glass has processed more than 200 tonnes of post-consumer glass which it estimates is equivalent to a saving of 64,226 kg in CO2 emissions. All waste glass or “cullet” collected is sent to Saint-Gobain Glass for reuse in the manufacture of new glass specifically for windows and doors. It is an agreement which, in turn, supports the Morley Glass charity scheme that offers ‘green fund’ grants of £500 to local charities who are dedicated to sustainability initiatives delivering environmental benefits.
The direct and positive impacts on the environment of this glass recycling initiative also extend into making the manufacture of new glass more energy efficient. This is because the amount of energy needed by a furnace to melt recycled glass cullet is 30% lower than for virgin materials.
Using one tonne of cullet can, therefore, save up to 1.2 tonnes of raw material, including 850 kg of sand, and approximately 300 kg of CO2 – the amount of energy needed to power the average home for six months. So, with the 64,000 kg of cullet already collected by Morley Glass to date, enough glass has been recycled to power an average home for 100 years!
Ian Short, MD of Morley Glass & Glazing said: “When we heard that Saint-Gobain Glass sought to increase the amount of cullet used in its float glass production, and that they needed to find a way to obtain it quickly and easily, we knew we could help. Hence, we decided to invest in a fully functioning recycling facility, as It makes perfect sense to recycle any manufacturing waste and post-consumer glass, particularly when we link the income from this valuable waste to local good causes.”
“Using our recycling service is easy for Morley Glass customers too. Whenever they take delivery of their integral blinds order, they can then use our empty delivery vehicles to send any waste glass they’ve removed from residential properties back to our collection centre. This cullet return scheme also saves them the cost and hassle of disposing waste glass via landfill or other commercial recycling schemes, which may charge for the service.
“Whilst we still have a long way to go on our ‘green journey’, we hope that by sharing our experiences we’ll be able to inspire others to do the same. 2020 has been an unprecedented year for many industries, but we hope to be able to continue making a difference where we can.”
Leeds-based Morley Glass is the UK’s leading manufacturer of Pellini-blinds systems using only the world-renowned Pellini blind systems. It provides a wide range of Venetian and pleated integral blinds systems for installation into residential properties as well as public and commercial buildings, with a pleated blackout blind and fire rated integral blind solution being two of the latest additions to the range.
