Did you know that recycling glass can save up to 40% of the energy used to make new glass containers?
Recycling glass is a simple way to reduce your environmental impact and help conserve resources.
In this blog post, we will discuss how glass is recycled, what happens to the recycled glass, and some fun facts about recycling glass!
How glass is recycled
The recycling process begins with sorting the glass by color. The most common colors of glass are clear, green, and brown.
Clear glass is the easiest to recycle because it can be used for any new product. Green and brown glass are recycled into new green and brown glass products, respectively.
After the glass is sorted by color, it is crushed into small pieces called cullets. The cullet is then mixed with sand, soda ash, and limestone and heated to over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. This process melts the glass and forms it into new bottles or other glass products!
Fun facts about recycling glass
Now that you know how glass is recycled, here are some fun facts about recycling glass:
- Recycling one ton of glass saves over a ton of natural resources, including sand, soda ash, and limestone.
- It takes less energy to recycle glass than it does to make new glass from scratch.
- Recycling glass reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
- Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without losing any of its quality.
- Making new glass from recycled glass requires 30% less energy than making it from scratch.
- The average person uses about 30 pounds of glass each year.
- Most glass bottles and jars in the United States are made from 25% recycled glass.
- It takes about four weeks to recycle a glass bottle.
- Recycling one glass bottle can save enough energy to power a 100-watt light bulb for four hours
Reusing your SomaLeaf bottle
When taking care of the environment, it’s important to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Being glass, your SomaLeaf bottle is fully recyclable.
But can you reuse it?
Yes! Below are a few ideas for how you can reuse your SomaLeaf bottle once it’s empty.
Traveling
Going on a vacation? Or maybe you travel a lot for work?
You probably already know how much of a pain it is to take full size bottles of your favorite products on the road or on a plane with you. So, many people use travel size bottles. Like the size of our bottles!
If you rinse and keep your glass SomaLeaf bottle, you can use it for lotions, toners, shampoo and conditioners, make-up, and more. You can also use it for hand sanitizer!
The pump top twists to the side to lock it, so it won’t leak when tightened properly, and it can be easily packed in your suitcase or carry-on.
Use them for homemade lotions, etc…
If you make homemade lotions, toners, make-up, or other cosmetics, glass bottles are a perfect storage option – especially if you use essential oils in them. Simply rinse out the bottles and peel off the labels (a little olive oil can help with that).
The pump top gives you small amounts of your DIY cosmetics, which is usually ideal. The glass is perfect because then none of the essential oils leach into the plastic.
Make reed diffusers
Put some water, a teaspoon of alcohol, an essential oil of your choice, and five or six small reed sticks in a rinsed out bottle then you’ve got a beautiful little air freshener. You can even decorate the bottle if you want!
Store spices or other ingredients
You could easily empty and rinse these bottles, change out the lid for a solid one, and store spices in them. They’d be easy to label and store, though they would have to be measured onto spoons rather than sprinkled from the bottle.
However, the pump tops make for easier serving of other ingredients, like vanilla, which usually comes in a bottle that is awkward to pour from. By moving your vanilla or similar ingredients into these bottles you can pump it onto a spoon for easier measuring!
Also, if you like lime or lemon juice in your drinks, you could squeeze the juice and store it in these bottles in your fridge for easy usage!
Room, linen, or bug sprays
With the pump lid, you can have tiny spray bottles using water, alcohol, essential oils, or other natural scents that can freshen up a room.
There are a lot of great recipes online for refreshing scents that you can spray in your bathroom or on your pillow to help you sleep.
You could also make bug repellent sprays, or transfer your preferred brand of bug spray into these smaller bottles to pack for camping or to keep on hand on your deck, in your car, or anywhere else you want to stay mosquito-free!
Thank you for reading!
When you read blogs like this, recycle your bottles, and reuse them you’re doing your part to help the environment.
For that, we thank you!
Do you have any creative ideas on how to reuse your SomaLeaf bottles?
We’d love to hear it!
Just email us at info@somaleaf.com and let us know.
Can’t wait to hear from you 🙂
