People who want to dispose of waste glass usually know the way to the waste glass bins in their neighbourhood. These are sorted by colour so that white, green and brown jars can be easily separated. You can find out how to properly dispose of the jar lids here.
Separate used glass correctly when disposing of it
Waste glass includes all the jars and bottles you come across in everyday life. For example, drinks and milk bottles, preserving jars or medicine and cosmetic bottles. As soon as you no longer need them, you can dispose of them. There are special containers for this, usually near rubbish bins or clothes collection containers.
- You can also find out where your bottle banks are by asking your local council or contacting the waste collection service.
- The bottle banks are usually separated by colour. There are drop-in holes for green, brown and white glass. Often the containers also have matching colours.
- If your glasses have other colours, for example blue, red, orange or yellow, throw them into the green glass container. Colours that you cannot clearly identify also belong in there.
- In Austria, for example, there is only white glass and coloured glass, which makes it easier to classify.
- Drinking glasses, flower vases, glass lamps and other household objects made of glass do not belong to waste glass. Dispose of these in your household waste.
- Dispose of broken glass, window glass or mirror glass in household or residual waste.
- For light bulbs and fluorescent tubes made of glass, you can find the right disposal option at the supermarket.
How to dispose of glasses properly
When you dispose of waste glass, you should throw it in “spoon clean”. This means the jars and bottles are empty and rinsed out if possible. Use a dishwashing brush or sponge, for example, to get into the edges and corners.
- You don’t necessarily have to wash used glass, but leftover food can quickly become smelly or mouldy.
- One exception is honey jars, which you should rinse thoroughly to prevent bee diseases.
- It is best to separate everything that does not belong to the jar before disposing of it. This includes lids, corks, closures made of plastic, metal or other materials.
- Dispose of them in household waste, plastic waste or paper waste, depending on the material.
- Stickers and labels as well as materials that you cannot remove, for example plastic rings on the glass opening, can be left on the recycled glass. They are automatically removed during glass recycling.
- When disposing of used glass, there are fixed disposal times. This means that you are not allowed to throw glass into the containers at any time of the day or night because of the noise it makes. The times at which glass can be thrown in are usually indicated on the container.
