Friends of Glass - the campaign that promotes glass packaging, together with Marks & Spencer and Leeds City Council, has launched a new initiative to encourage people in the city to recycle more glass.

The aim is to encourage residents in Leeds to become a 'recycling hero' and to take their glass bottles and jars to specially decorated recycling banks at the Marks & Spencer Moortown store on Harrogate Road.  The initiative is part of a drive to raise awareness of just how easy it is to recycle glass food and drink packaging and encourage people to recycle all their empty glass bottles and jars. 

To help householders remember to bring their glass for recycling, there's a Friends of Glass competition to win a prize for the best selfie or photo of shoppers recycling bottles or jars at city glass banks. The photo can be taken at any of the 700 glass banks around the city and submitted to the Friends of Glass Facebook or Instagram pages. There are five Apple iPad Mini 2s up for grabs for the lucky winners. The competition ends on Monday 7th May so there's just enough time for last minute entries!

Gareth Jones, Operations Director at glass industry body British Glass says: “Glass is endlessly and 100% recyclable and can be used to make new bottles and jars over and over again. Yorkshire has a proud history of being at the forefront of the UK's glass manufacturing industry. For example, all the glass that is collected in Leeds is recycled locally in Yorkshire, with around 5 billion glass bottles and jars produced every year by 7 Yorkshire-based glass factories. By recycling as much glass as possible, the people of Leeds will help ensure there is a steady supply of glass available to put back into the system. Using recycled glass to make new glass also saves energy and helps reduce emissions into the atmosphere¹”.

Laura Fernandez, packaging technologist at Marks & Spencer says: “Glass is such a valuable, sustainable and healthy material, it's really important it doesn't end up going to waste.  We're delighted to be working with Friends of Glass and Leeds City Council to highlight just how easy glass is to recycle”.

Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, executive member for environment and sustainability at Leeds City Council said: “Recycling glass is such a great way to make the most of our resources, help the environment and save money. Last year more than 15,000 tonnes of glass bottles and jars were thrown away in household bins – that's the same weight as 108 blue whales. Disposing of that cost Leeds over £1.5 million² in charges, that could have been avoided if the glass had been recycled. This is money that would have been better spent on other local services”.  

The decorated glass recycling banks at Marks & Spencer will be located in the store's car park during the promotion.  To find the nearest glass bank to you, simply download the Leeds Bin App. 

ENDS 

For further information please contact:
Debra Pieri at Third Rock Communications on 07801 545462 or debrap@thirdrockcomms.co.uk or

Amanda Barry-Hirst at Third Rock Communications on 07860 313576 or at amanda@thirdrockcomms.co.uk

Notes to Editors

1. British Glass www.britglass.org.uk
2. Leeds City Council

About Friends of Glass

Friends of Glass is a pan-European community dedicated to promoting the right for consumers to be able to choose the food and drink products they love in glass packaging. Friends of Glass unites all those who believe glass is the clear choice for themselves, their families and for the environment. Friends of Glass UK is managed by British Glass Manufacturers' Confederation.

About British Glass

The British Glass Manufacturers' Confederation represents the interests of all sectors of the glass industry in the UK. Its main activity is in representing the industry at European, national and local level on a wide range of topical legislative issues. It also conducts independent research into all aspects of glass production and technology. http://www.britglass.co..uk