As Christmas approaches — and with it a surge in bottles of wine, fizz and festive jars — Alasdair and Jane turn their attention to glass. What happens to it once the recycling bin is emptied? Why does colour sorting matter? And how much of Scotland’s glass is actually recovered? This week’s episode answers all those questions and more.
NEWS ROUNDUP
Inquiry chair ‘alarmed’ waste mountain not disclosed
The fallout from the infamous Kidlington waste site continues. As Jane explains, a House of Lords committee chair expressed shock that the Environment Agency failed to disclose the full scale of illegal waste sites — including not only Kidlington but others in Wigan and Worcestershire. The timeline shows months of inaction before the waste mountain became a national headline, raising serious questions about oversight and transparency. Cleaning up these sites will cost “tens to hundreds of thousands of pounds,” Alasdair notes.
Safety Concerns: SWITCH AGM event highlights risks with bin lifts
Automatic bin lifts continue to pose dangers, with incidents of operators being lifted or crushed. Alasdair reports on new temporary retrofits and innovations — including sensors designed to distinguish a human from a bin — although current solutions are far from perfect. Photos from a French trial using red hazard lighting systems underscore the urgency of improving safety across fleets.
Scotland’s Textile Waste Problem Growing
Zero Waste Scotland’s new report reveals the scale of Scotland’s textile footprint: 405,000 tonnes of textiles pass through retail each year — yet 131,000 tonnes are discarded before or after use. Only 11% is reused domestically, while over a third is sent overseas. Despite textiles making up just 3.5% of household waste, they account for 19.4% of climate impacts.
Jane and Alasdair highlight the wastefulness and question why producers face so little responsibility. Zero Waste Scotland is now modelling household collections for textiles, small WEEE and batteries — but the hosts agree Scotland needs far stronger action on fast fashion and circularity.
64 live rounds found in WEEE at GAP Group
A shocking discovery at GAP Group North East Ltd: 64 live rounds of ammunition hidden within discarded electrical waste. Jane and Alasdair revisit their conversation with Nigel Tomlinson (Episode 39) as they discuss the dangers WEEE operators face — from gas canisters exploding in EfW facilities to hazardous items being illegally mixed into household waste. “Can you imagine if that had gone through the shredder?” Jane says.
Fly-tipper caught on CCTV… in a dinosaur costume
In a bizarre twist, a fly-tipper dressed as a purple dinosaur was filmed dumping bags beside a bin in Southend. While it made national news, Jane calls it what it is: “a mockery of proper waste disposal.” Behind the comedy is the same community impact — abandoned waste and someone else left to clean it up.
TOPIC: The Waste Journey of Glass
With Scotland generating over 207,000 tonnes of glass waste in 2023 — but recovering only around 131,000 tonnes — there is still a huge opportunity to improve glass circularity. Jane opens with why glass recycling matters: it’s infinitely recyclable, supports the circular economy, and reduces reliance on virgin materials. But the journey is more complex than many realise.
Depending on where you live, glass might be collected kerbside (like Alasdair’s purple-lidded bin), mixed with cans and plastics (like Jane’s), or taken to bottle banks. Regardless, the ideal input is glass bottles and jars only — not Pyrex, window glass, ceramics or drinking glasses, all of which melt at different temperatures and contaminate the recycling stream.
Colour sorting remains important for closed-loop recycling, although modern facilities like Sibelco’s Newhouse plant can separate mixed glass into usable fractions. Surprising to both presenters, current market prices for clear, green, brown and mixed glass are broadly similar — raising questions about the cost–benefit of colour separation at collection.
Jane draws on her visit to the O-I glass factory, describing molten glass “dropping out in globules” before forming new bottles — a process as mesmerising as it is energy-intensive. Reprocessors can only include a certain proportion of recycled content to keep emissions manageable, balancing circularity with furnace performance.
Not all glass becomes bottles again. Some lower-grade material is turned into aggregate, sand substitute, shot-blast material or — interestingly — filtration media. Glass filters can reduce water treatment energy use, chemical demand, and fouling, making it a surprisingly high-value outlet despite its lower carbon savings.
Alasdair highlights European examples where beer bottles are standardised and endlessly reused — a system far more sustainable than recycling. Even at home, Jane recalls milk bottle return schemes as a reminder of how simple reuse can be. Could reuse make a comeback in the UK? Only if producers are pushed to redesign packaging systems.
The UK-wide DRS will exclude glass, unlike Wales, which plans to include it. That decision impacts kerbside systems, retail handling, safety concerns and producer behaviour. As Alasdair notes, omitting glass could lead to more plastic on the market — an unintended environmental consequence worth watching closely.
RUBBISH RANT: Christmas Over-Consumption
With Christmas approaching, Alasdair’s seasonal plea is simple: stop buying tat. From novelty gifts destined for the bin by January to pressure to over-consume at parties, the wastefulness is staggering. Jane admits her own decorations are getting “more tatty every year,” but at least they are reused annually — a small victory.
Real or artificial trees? That debate continues, though Alasdair’s 20-year-old artificial one is still going strong. But the message remains: consume thoughtfully, reuse what you have, and resist the assumption that more stuff equals more celebration.
And a final reminder: WEEE and batteries should always be recycled properly — don’t put them in the bin. You can find out where to take them at: Recycle Your Electricals.
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