One of the best things about the craft beer movement is that it has encouraged people to think about their relationship with their wine bottles and how they can reuse or recycle them. Many beer drinkers have also gotten into this habit, but there's one thing that still needs work: glass cups.
Glass cups are often made of tempered glass, which is not as recyclable as other types of glass.
Also known as safety glass, tempered glass is a type of toughened glass that’s made by heating and cooling the material twice. It’s used in windows and windshields on cars because it can withstand high impacts without shattering. Tempered glass is also not recyclable. Regular clear or green bottles are made of soda-lime glass, which breaks down into sand when recycled and can be used for new products such as windows and bottles—and still retain their shape if broken!
Glass bottles are cheap to recycle, but glass cups cost more to recycle.
In general, glass bottles are easy to crush and inexpensive to process. Glass cups, on the other hand, are made of a different kind of glass that is difficult to crush. This means it costs more money to recycle them. The material also tends to be heavier than the average bottle—as opposed to your typical recycled plastic bottle (think soda or water), which weighs about 10 percent as much as its unprocessed counterpart.
As a result of these factors and others I don't have time for here (because this is an article about recycling) it's pretty clear why we don't see many glass-bottle-recycling programs at home: they simply aren't cost effective enough in comparison with other materials like aluminum cans or PET plastics such as those found in soda bottles or milk jugs
Glass cups can break apart when you're trying to recycle them.
Glass cups are far more delicate than bottles, and can break apart when you try to recycle them. Many recycling bins have a maximum weight limit for items that get tossed in, and if your recycling bin is too heavy because of the glass cup, it's likely that all the recycling in your bin will be rejected by the sorting facility. That means you'll have to pay for another trip to drop off your recyclables at their destination—which isn't cheap. Additionally, these broken pieces of glass can cause injuries—or worse—to those who work at sorting facilities or who handle our waste domestically (e.g., garbage collectors).
In short:
Glass bottles are recyclable; they're made from tempered glass which is not as easily recyclable as other types of glass but still has its uses once recycled properly. They're cheap to recycle because they don't require much energy or labor on behalf of manufacturers or consumers; they just need some heat and pressure so they don't shatter into millions of pieces when you try putting them back together again!
By recycling glass bottles and jars, you can save energy and money.
Recycling glass bottles and jars helps to reduce the use of new raw materials, thus reducing energy consumption. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and water pollution. Recycling glass containers means that less waste is sent to landfill sites (not only in terms of the glass itself but also other materials that may be present), which means that less landfill space is needed.
You can't recycle your wine bottles the same way you do your wine glasses or mason jars.
You can't recycle your wine bottles the same way you do your wine glasses or mason jars. The reason for this is tempered glass, a type of glass that's more resistant to breakage than regular flat glass. Tempered glass is used in windows, windshields and other products where a strong material is needed to withstand impact.
Tempered bottles cost more to recycle than other types of glass because they require different equipment and processes. Also, when you're trying to recycle a cup, it will often come apart or crack into pieces if not handled carefully by the collector at the recycling center—which means more time spent sorting out all those shards for disposal (which also costs money).
By recycling your jars and bottles instead of throwing them away after use, you can save time and money as well as protect yourself from chemicals leaching into groundwater supplies from these materials' disposal in landfills.
You can save money and energy by recycling your glass bottles and jars. Even though you can’t recycle all types of glass, there are still ways to reuse them around your home or donate them to charity.
