Though glass is the commodity that has perhaps the longest history of being recycled, it actually has the lowest energy and material returns, compared with other types of material. It’s heavy and difficult to handle, since it often breaks on the way to the sorting facility. As a result, a great deal of glass winds up in landfills, anyhow.
What is a much better solution is actually a very old idea: reusing the glass. Many older folks remember how milk bottles were once returned, sterilized and reused many times. This scheme does save a great deal of energy and is, once again, gaining momentum among consumers and recyclers alike.
While reusing milk bottles does increase the weight associated with transporting the milk, it also tends to be used with local dairies, which offsets the overall transport costs, as opposed to milk that travels hundreds, if not thousands of miles, to market.
