A small lesson about container glass
These two have glassholes. A window does not.
Look at them. A bottle and a jar, made at the factory with a hole already open, and perfectly pleased about it. That hole is a glasshole. Container glass with a mouth can be recycled. Plate glass, windows, and mirrors were never given a mouth, and they cannot go into container-glass recycling.
1 A mouth, from the factory
A glasshole is not a shop and not a gadget. It is the mouth a bottle or a jar was manufactured with. The smile is just how you remember which glass is which.
Food and drink containers leave the factory already open at the top. The wine bottle, the soda bottle, the jam jar, the pickle jar. When a recycling program accepts container glass, those are the ones it can take.
A window cannot make that face. A mirror cannot either. Flat glass was made as a sheet. No mouth, no glasshole, and no place in container-glass recycling.
2 What goes in, and what stays out
Goes in
When a program accepts container glass, this is the glass that belongs.
- Bottles. Soda, water, juice, wine, beer, and other drinks packed in glass.
- Jars. Sauce, jam, pickles, and other food packed in glass.
Stays out
Flat glass, or something that was never a food-and-drink container.
- Window glass and other plate glass
- Mirrors. They also wear a reflective coating that does not belong in container recycling.
- Drinking glasses
- Ceramics, including mugs and dishes
- Pyrex and other cookware
- Light bulbs
- Auto glass
3 Why the mix matters
Bottles and jars are one family of glass. Window and plate glass, mirrors, drinking glasses, ceramics, Pyrex and other cookware, light bulbs, and auto glass are composed differently, and they melt differently.
Slip the wrong ones in with the bottles and jars and they can contaminate a batch and damage a furnace. A mirror brings a reflective coating along, and that coating does not belong in container recycling either.
What does belong can come back. Container glass can be melted and made into new bottles and jars again and again, without wearing out. That is all the arrows on the mark are saying. They are a loop, not a prize.
If it was born a bottle or a jar, it has a glasshole. If it was not, it stays out of container-glass recycling.
4 When you want them picked up
This page does not take a booking. It only introduces the mouths. Glass pickup is arranged through Trash Cubes.
Paint is a different material, and it is handled separately.