What happens if you put the wrong colour glass in the recycling?

Question

Does it have to get taken out manually? Can't imagine that or is it sorted automatically somehow but I guess that would be dificult or does it not matter in which case why do we seperate it in the first place?

Answer 1

Nothing happens on your end, you just walk away. The plants usually should go through and manually do it, which cost more money that YOU pay for with your taxes. Or they turn the other cheek and mixed colors don't get recycled. Best thing to do is fix the problem at the beginning, which is the easiest, unless our colorblind and lazy.

Answer 2

It depends where you live.  The sad truth that many people aren't aware of is that your recycling and regular trash may be taken to the exact same place and re-mixed (if that is a word).

It makes people happier to feel that they are "doing their part" but, I was told that they "have to do something with the waste" and, "if they don't have someone to use the recycled product, they just mix it in with the regular trash".

I know that this isn't the answer you were looking for but, it is true.

Answer 3

well i would have thought that putting in the odd wrong colour glass into recycling would not matter,but maybe if you were to put a load in it would matter,but i would not lose any sleep over it  :)

Answer 4

Did you know that allegedly 25% of all recycled material is exported to the far east, presumably on those container ships that are returning there after having brought us those cheap DVD players, gap clothes, plastic junk and other consumer items we end up throwing away once they become unfashionable.

I asked a colleage who knows this kind of thing what is likely to happen once it gets there, and he told me the following:

It gets stored in great heaps awaiting the moment when the international market for glass, plastic or whatever hits the right price, whereupon it is sold. But if the price is not right, well I guess they then take advantage of the less strict local landfill regulations...

Answer 5

Probably happens more than you think, every day  actually.

As this contamination is too costly to sort manually It all gets turned into BROWN glass so it's not wasted.

Answer 6

The color change..Maybe..

Answer 7

it would probably be taken out manually depending on the collection system there are mechanical methods of seperating it due to light refraction technology...this only works if it is not broken.

The reason it is kept serperate is because if it is pure then it can go back into being used as that colour of glass. If it is all mixed up (brown and green is usually fine to mix) then it has to be used as agregate as the impurity will lower the quality. This might be used in road surfacing for example.

Most places want to keep it seperate for ease and the use of it afterwards

Answer 8

walk away singing 1 000 0000 green bottles and a brown one-----.lol

Answer 9

Well if you belive Greenpeace then the entire Space-TIme Continum will implode with you as the central point. Everything that exists or had existed will crush you entirely!

On a more serious note, probably nothing major. The ingredients for the different colours have different melting points one would imagine.

Answer 10

If a brown bottle gets put into a pile of green bottles, the resulting new bottles from the recycled glass will be green with a tiny incremental shade of brown.

Answer 11

It is my understanding that much of the glass recycled now goes for use in the building of roads etc so for this purpose the separating of colours is not necessary. Our local council supplies wheelie bins for glass and do not need colours separating. The same bin does for tins so some sorting must go on. Most of the tins will be retrieved using a magnet I presume - but they must have some back up sorting method. I sincerely hope it does get recycled rather than end up in landfill - but I understand recycling is a costly business these days.

Answer 12

Mixed coloured class is recycled together.

More more information see http://www.wiserplanet.org/recycling.htm...

OR

For a challenge is guaranteed to suck you right in try:

http://www.wiserplanet.org/geoTest.html

Answer 13

This may be out of date, but i used to recycle glass as part of my job and it used to go into the brown lot if this was done.

Answer 14

The entire glass plant shuts down . They then call in technicians to figure out the problem and how to solve it costing thousands of dollars . LOL i have no idea but i can imagine 20 guys standing there looking at a green bottle wondering who's job it is to remove it

Answer 15

the whole load of glass in which there is a wrong one just gets discarded...so if anybody puts a wrong colour in the the main recycling thing then everybody else's efforts are useless!!

KEEP RECYCLING!!

Answer 16

Of course it matters. This is 'N' important. Because you mixed it up, mountains will crumble, the seas will dry up, birds will stop singing and all kinds of BAAAAD things will happen.

HOW COULD YOU BE SO CARELESS.

IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT.