by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Jars and bottles that have been made with mixed-color recycled glass do not appear to put off consumers, according to trials on supermarket shelves.
Retailers have expressed concern that consumers might find glass with a slight colored tint off-putting but this research carried out by WRAP suggests otherwise.
This would indicate that most of the British public are actually cleaver enough to realize that the color of the glass does not matter as it does not impact on the contents.
The waste-reduction organization is hoping it will break down one of the barriers currently affecting the amount of glass being recycled back into useful products.
WRAP believes the study will also benefit the recycling industry in the UK by providing confidence in the demand for more mixed color recycled glass.
Conducted in partnership with Sainsbury's, the study looked at consumer attitudes to food and drink products in glass packaging with a slightly green hue - the color produced when it contains a high percentage of mixed-color recycled glass.
By comparing participants' perceptions of a range of common products - from mayonnaise and preserves to wines and spirits - packaged in both recycled and clear glass containers, the study found that the color change did not tend to have a detrimental effect.
Mayonnaise was the only product that consumers preferred in a clear glass container, otherwise, product approval ratings were similar regardless of container colour.
Marcus Gover, director of market development at WRAP, said: "WRAP's study suggests that, in the majority of cases, consumers are just as likely to buy food and drink products in containers with over 90% mixed-colour recycled glass content as they are to purchase products in clear glass packaging.
"This study should give retailers the confidence to use more recycled glass in their products - in the knowledge that it will not adversely affect sales.
"This is good news for the recycling industry as it could help to stimulate a high value market for mixed-color recycled glass in the UK. This in turn may provide the impetus to divert more of this glass away from landfill and secondary markets and into closed loop recycling."
But why not reuse the bottles and jars after use as was done years ago instead of using energy to remake glass containers. It is absolutely silly the way we are going about.
Recycling glass by first destroying the shape into shards and then grinding it to a sand structure before melting the material down and turning it into more or less the same containers that were broken up to make the new ones. This all just is total stupidity.
Not so long ago until the 1970s we knew what to do. We then had glass bottles with a deposit on them and more or less all drinks bottles, beer, cider, lemonade and Coca Cola, all. We must bring this back. It is NOT rocket science, so why treat it as such. And we must extend such as scheme also to other glass containers, including sauce bottles, jars and wine bottles rather than to a company to first destroy the containers, remelt them into glass and make them into basically the same containers they just destroyed, all consuming energy, though, it may be true, now as much as creating glass from new entirely. Collecting and cleaning the containers, however, would be much cheaper. So why do we not do it? We really cannot be that stupid.
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