THE GLASS – PACKAGING THAT CAN BE RECYCLED UNLIMITED NUMBER OF TIMES
Poured by
Filip Ivanovski
The glass is one of the oldest materials that today are still used for packaging. Even though, the beginnings of making glass is dating 3500 year BC in the land of today Syria, the use of glass as packaging started around 1500 year BC, in Egypt and Mesopotamia. In the year 1000 BC, Alexandria was the center of glass production. Тhe suitability of keeping food and beverages in glass containers, that is also suitable for recycling, is still not surpassed by any other material. To compare, plastic bottles are not recommended for long-term usage because of certain mutual interaction and the incapacity of preserving food and beverages from external influences. Paper needs a big process for production for which we need a lot of water and energy, and cans are even more specific in terms of recycling and production. What’s even more important, a part from glass, all other materials use natural resources which are relatively limited on our planet and require important investments for exploitation of oil, mines and forest areas.
At the end of 2014, Pakomak started with collecting glass packaging from the, so called, HOREKA sector: hotels, restaurants and cafes. Two years after, Pakomak collects the glass on a highly organized and regular way, from 240 HOREKA locations in Skopje, but also from another 50 locations in Ohrid, Dojran, Struga, Mavrovo and Kumanovo. We collect around 40-50 tons of (wine, beer, water) glass bottles monthly. Our plan is to collect double amount up until year 2020 only from this channel, or, 6.000 tons of glass from every channel. And that is 30 % of the whole glass packaging amount sent on the market in our country. In Pakomak we are proud with this result because up until the year 2015, the glass packaging was not collected and it all ended in the landfills around the country.
Did you know that, with 1 ton of recycled glass we save 42kWh energy, around 2m3 volume of the landfills and we stop the release of 370kg CO2 in the atmosphere?
Energy saved by recycling one glass bottle is enough to provide 4 hours’ endurance of one 100W light bulb. That is why we should sort the waste, and make our contribution to recycling. Not for Pakomak, not for someone’s profit and not for someone else. We should only do it for us, and for the generations coming after us. The sorting of the waste must become a daily habit, like washing your hand or face, the morning coffee with your colleagues, the exercising in the afternoon.. We should have bad conscious for throwing the plastic or glass bottle in a regular bin. With a little effort, we can contribute a lot to the well-being of our environment.
Instead of being angry by the fact that environment is every day more and more polluted, we should give personal example by saving the natural resources. We should be the first ones implementing the changes we wish to see in the others, we have the possibility, but do we have the will?!
In Pakomak, we have a mission to create possibilities and to wake up the will in everyone to sort its waste. Still, the final act of doing is in every one of us separately. Do not hesitate. The waste MUST be sorted, for us and for the generations that comes. With a little change of our daily habits, we will create important changes in our environment.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and do not necessarily represent the views of Pivara Skopje.
