BLOG IN A BOTTLE

The Facts:
Glass jars have been around since the 1800s but it wasn’t until the after 1900 that home canning was encouraged and seen as a way to provide better diets, preserve flavor, food longevity and reduce the cost of living. By the end of the century, the decline of the family farm, the low cost of commercially canned foods and the widespread use of freezers had made home canning more of a hobby than a habit.

The Trends:
In the new millennium, we have other things on our mind. With the growing concerns over global-warming, as well as our valid worries over food safety, the relationships between food, flavor, health, packaging and sustainability are now at the forefront of our thoughts.

A trend among consumers is emerging: the desire to live a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. This has been seen in the rapid rise of organic food and farming, the return to popularity of home-cooking and preserving, and an increasing awareness and interest in our foods’ sources and ingredients.

More and more of us are realizing that the future of our planet may very well depend on where we get our food, what we choose to eat and how we decide to store it.

The Research:
Commissioned by FEVE (the European Container Glass Federation), the InSites study asked over consumers in 17 countries across Europe what they thought about various packaging materials.
In a nutshell, the survey reveals:

-          65% of consumers prefer glass because it preserves taste,
-          63% perceive that it is safest health-wise,
-          50% say it is the most environmentally-friendly.

The same kind of survey was carried out in the States in 2006 with the same results:

'Glass is Life' Awareness Campaign, USA

Furthermore, glass is the only packaging material rated “GRAS” or “generally regarded as safe” by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
(Newton Marketing & Research of Norman, Oklahoma)

Clearly, consumers agree that glass is their preferred packaging for consumer health and the environment.

Nutritious and Delicious
The InSites survey goes on to show that the preference for glass is particularly high when it comes to certain food and drink categories where flavor is everything, such as spirits, wines and beers. More than that, glass also preserves the natural aromas, tastes and textures, making it the perfect material to store fresh and perishable products as fruit juices, smoothies and tomato-based sauces.

Glass is the material of choice for chefs, in particular, Geir Skeie who knows that glass is a true food lover. The purity of glass ensures that food retains its great flavour.
WATCH THE VIDEO:

Recipes and Instructions
Why not give it a go? Here are some handy links to get you started:

Canning, The Epicurious Way
Canning Safely, Weck
Home Canning, Kaufmann Mercantile Blog
Meyer Lemon Marmalade Recipe, Kaufmann Mercantile Blog
How to Can, Fresh Preserving
Food in Jars Blog
Recipes, Saving the Season
Preserved Fruits and Sweetmeats, Jennie June’s American Cookery Book, by Jane Cunningham Croly. Google Books.
Kitchen Lighting Made From Weck Canning Jars, The Kitchn
Weck Canning Jars, Katy Elliot

Photo by: Dorling Kindersley/Getty Images

If you find yourself in Greenwhich (UK), be sure to visit The Old Brewery where you can marvel at a gigantic chandelier made of 2,000 glass bottles.

Each glass bottle in the impressive centrepiece was individually hung over the course of 2 days.

The Old Brewery is run by the Meantime Brewing Company, famous for their wheat and chocolate beer varieties.

Meantime grog has a distinctive bottle shape, which glass packaging manufacturers Beatson Clark provide them with.

Alec Fleming, Meantime Brewing’s retail marketing manager, explained that during the day the site is flooded with natural light. He said:

“By night a more atmospheric and intimate ambience was required for the brasserie, which is provided by the bottles.

Fitted to an undulating platform with points of light above, the bottles diffuse the glow, providing an impressive lighting effect for diners to fully appreciate.”

Via Packaging News

There are literally hundreds of you who have pitched in to help make #tweetrecycle an unqualified success, and for that we thank you. Across Europe, nay the world, individuals, companies and green types have recycled over 108,000 bottles…

But we don’t want it to stop here… As you probably know, glass is the world’s only 100% recyclable material – and so we think it’s vital that everyone who can continues to spread the good word of recycling.

Therefore, we’ve created a central site which will map exactly who is getting involved, and where in the world they are! Similar to the popular geographic Twitter aggregator Twittervision in form, but created solely with Tweetrecycle in mind – you can watch as tweets pop up across the map of Europe – and see who is on the leaderboard and creating the most tweets about #tweetrecyle.

Whatsmore, you can click on an individual tweet to view it on twitter.com, or click on a person listed in the bottle graph to see their complete twitter account… It could be a great way to follow like-minded individuals too.

So go and have a look, #tweetrecycle and look for your Tweet coming up! Oh, and a prize for anyone who can knock our very own @girliterate from the top of the charts… She’s doing a little bit too well.

Ah how the word of #tweetrecycle has spread, and as our recycled bottles continue to increase and with it, the amount of energy saved,  it was nice to see the word being spread round and about the Twestivals of England. Reports of #tweetrecycle bands being proudly worn at Oxford, Reading, Birmingham and London Twestivals were emanating all of last weekend, with more from Manchester; scores of pictures taken of the ‘Twitterati’ wearing the #tweetrecycle logo upon their wrists.

I’ve included my favourite picture below, and if you want to furnish yourself with a stylish bit of blue for your wrist – just drop us an email at Camilla.brown@friendsofglass.com and we’ll send some along. Meanwhile, keep tweetrecycling!

From Rocky to The Karate Kid, all the best films have a montage – and with the number of photos we’ve received from people proudly sporting their #tweetrecycle bands, we thought there was no better way to show them off.

A quick update shows that we have now smashed our target of 75,000 bottles and have now successfully recycled 108,036 glass containers – which is simply sterling work from everybody and means we could run a washing machine non stop for over 139 years with the amount of energy saved.

Well done everyone, and if anyone wants to show the world they’re tweetrecycling with a specially made wristband, just email us at Camilla.brown@friendsofglass.com and we’ll send some out for you and your Twitter pals – completely free of charge.

We’ve done it! Incredible scenes of delight at #tweetrecycle HQ as between us all, we’ve not only reached the #tweetrecycle target of recycling enough glass to power the street-lights of London for 5 minutes – we’ve smashed it!

Snare drums, bright lights and a trumpet fanfare please… We needed 75,000 bottles to power the street lights of London for 5 minutes, and now we’ve reached a magnificent 105,019. This is phenomenal work and down to everyone who tweetrecycled, and has taken this on board so heartily… Thank you all so much.

We don’t want it to stop there though… Oh no! So we’re asking you where we should go next… What target do you think #tweetrecycle should aspire to? Let us know by commenting below or dropping an email to camilla.brown@friendsofglass.com.

Special mention also today should go to @EMERGERecycling, who have recycled a staggering amount of bottles today, tweeting ‘@GlassFriendsUK A 75cl glass bottle weighs c500g, so something like c25,130 units is probably about right. #tweetrecycle ~AW’. Thanks guys, and congratulations on those impressive levels of recycling.

It’s a happy day again here at #tweetrecycle HQ as I can reveal that we’re well over half way to our target of powering the City of London streetlights for five minutes. A strong weekend of recycling from a number of tweetrecyclers ensured that by the end of the weekend, between almost 450 people, we’ve managed to recycle 41,106 bottles. Congratulations everyone!

Special mention should go to @SylvieVer who proved that cleaning up old rubbish can be a voyage of discovery, “79 empties from elder people: old Stella, old Duvel, old Coke (perished in 1997!)”, and @Chooseglass who evidently did just that, and recycled 11 glass containers this week. Meanwhile, @dacake promised “in Capracotta we never drink… 18 bottles” – and @benwerd assured us “14 bottles, 7 jars. (Cleared out the kitchen, not all alcohol!)”

Thanks so much to all of you guys, and everyone else who’s helped us out… Keep it up!

Hearty congratulations to one and all who have been involved with #tweetrecycle over the past few days – all of whom have helped see the total rocket to over 34,072 bottles recycled between you. Well done! This means that we’re almost half way to our total number of bottles #tweetrecycled in total, and have therefore successfully saved enough energy to power the streetlights of the city of London for almost 2 1/2 minutes. Lets keep it up!

Oh – and we may have mentioned them before, but make sure you take a look at the wonderful array of free downloads courtesy of Friend of Glass @atlandis. Whether it’s a new Twitter background, fresh new avatar or look for your mobile device you’re after – he’s created a wide variety of examples for you to download and use, making spreading the good word of recycling even easier. With different themes, regionalised graphics and a whole host of options, head over to his website and download yourself something pretty…

Another week another #tweetrecycle update – and a particularly impressive one to relay today as a flurry of recycling activity has pushed the total to over 11,000 bottles now (11,314 as of yesterday’s total count), which in context has saved enough energy to run an energy-saving lightbulb for (get this) 494 years!

This means we’re well on track with our target figure if the growth trend continues, and keep an eye out for some really exciting additions to #tweetrecycle coming soon – which I hope you will really like. More information on those coming in the next week or two.

For now though, thanks so much, and if you haven’t yet got involved with #tweetrecycle – take a look at the quick and simple instructions on http://tinyurl.com/tweetrecycle.

At its last count, our #tweetrecyle stats were anchored at just over 2,500 – a sterling effort indeed, but it is with great pleasure I can announce that in the last few days we have rocketed to 7657 bottles – suggesting that recycling efforts have really been ratcheted up! Congratulations all.

Special mention today must go to @Martin_Vallejo who has recycled a massive 93 bottles over 16 different trips to the recycling, and @cunovanthoff who has been working particularly hard too. A man of fine musical tastes, @mr_omneo has been keeping us entertained in the UK with fine musical recommendations, as well as a whole heap of recycling – and who can forget @nonestop who has been recycling hard too.

Thanks all – keep #tweetrecycling… And tell your friends too!