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On 26th March, FEVE published the latest numbers on glass recycling in Europe.

This is what it looks like:

Glass Recycling in Europe, 2010

In 2010, 68% of household glass in Europe was recycled.

This is what it represents:
- 68% is equal to 25 million glass bottles and jars.
- 20 out 25 million (80%) were recycled back into bottles and jars.
- 80% of household glass requires about 12 million tons of the planet’s natural resources (sand, limestone, soda ash) and releases 7 million tons of CO2 into our planet’s atmosphere to produce.
- 7 million tons of CO2 is approximately the same amount attributed to a small nation of cars on the road per year*.

Every 10% increase in recycled glass = a decrease of
-10% in sulfur dioxide (SO2)
-6% in nitrogen oxide (NOx)
-17% in carbon dioxide (CO2)
-2.5%°in electricity and natural gas
-6°C in furnace temperatures (during manufacturing process)
-9.5% in raw materials.
(Source: Glass Packaging Institute)

This is what it means:
These characteristics make glass a clear example to follow in the ambitious strategy of the European Commission to make the European Union a ‘resource efficient’ economy where recycling is the key factor to waste reduction and where waste is considered as a valuable resource.
(Conclusion of the Feve Study.)

*Calculated on 4 million people between ages 19 – 65 years, Switzerland:
http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/index/themen/01/02/blank/key/alter/gesamt.html

In these blogs, we often talk about how our lifestyles today will affect our lives tomorrow. Choosing sustainability before convenience, playgrounds instead of landfills, favoring glass over plastic, these are steps necessary to guaranteeing our future and conserving our planet for the next generations.

The United Nations World Water Day (1993-present) focuses on sustaining life by finding short and long-term solutions to ensure freshwater is in ready supply around the globe wherever it’s needed.  With one billion of the world’s population already living in hunger and thirst today and food and water resources under pressure, this year’s conference centers around reducing water wastage on an agricultural level (read more).

Download the UN-Water PDF: A Guide to UN-Water

Here are some ways you can reduce your water footprint: Save Water

Trying to balance a healthy diet around local and seasonal produce can often be quite tricky.

If we have to rule out every food source that comes wrapped in environmentally-harmful packaging, whilst adhering to the World Health Organisation’s 5-a-Day Program encouraging us to eat a minimum of five fruit and vegetables per day, many of us are left juggling a cabbage, potato and apple throughout winter.

Playing on our idea of fast-food, SLOW FAST FOOD offers slow-to-perish, fast-to-eat food - in this case, fruit and vegetables.

As the brand name suggests, there’s more than meets the eye. Not only does the brand gently nudge us to re-evaluate our associations with fast-food by replacing a burger with a vegetable, the simple, all-glass design is an accolade to the natural, purity of each ingredient it contains.

This what they promise:
Combining fresh produce in a design traditionally used to conserve food, SLOW FAST FOOD offers seasonally cultivated fruit and vegetables, contained in hand-filled glass pots ready to be enjoyed now or later.

Enjoy fresh, seasonal produce all year-around.

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

Let’s be honest – who really wants to talk about trash? We put it into bags, carefully place it outside our homes on the allocated day and, for most of us, that’s where it ends.

But for one lady that’s where it starts. Ms. April Lai lives in Hong Kong, where the seven million inhabitants produce a staggering 13,817 tons of garbage each day. Of the 6 million produced each year, barely any goes to recycling.

To give you an idea, in 2006 about 3,000 tons of glass waste was recovered, which came to about 2% of the glass waste generated in Hong Kong that year.

Whilst the government is slowly starting to put schemes into place to deal with this problem, Ms. Lai is spending her Thursdays and Saturdays sifting through rubbish at trash collection points in the city, gathering up all the glass she can find. With a tiny team of part-time drivers and volunteers, her nongovernmental organization, Green Glass Green, manages to deliver about two to three tons of glass to Tiostone Environmental each visit.

Founded in 2005, Tiostone’s factory is dedicated to transforming trash into paving stones and an essential component of those bricks is the glass Ms. Lai is tirelessly working to supply.

Tiostone Environmental by Bettina Wassener/The International Herald Tribune January 2012

Indeed, it is this very relationship between Green Glass Green and Tiostone that is rallying the local residents to take part in the city clean-up. Whilst Ms. Lai is fighting through endless red tape to obtain permission to place glass collection bins in public locations, residents around the city can be seen dropping off their bundles of glass empties for her to dispose of.

“When people show their support, it is so encouraging”, she says. Understandably so.

It no doubt seems Green Glass Green and Tiostone putting everything they have in the fight to keep the city clean. When programs to collect glass are met with indifference, such as the one set up by the government and Hong Kong hotel association in 2008 to retrieve glass waste from hotels, it is no doubt a delight to see people arriving with their empty jars and bottles.

Launch of the Glass Container Recycling ProgramNovember 2008

Certainly, the road ahead will not be an easy one for Ms. Lai and the founders of Tiostone. If waste loads continue to increase, an additional 400 hectares of land to develop new landfill sites to meet Hong Kong’s waste disposal needs up to 2030 (read more).  As Mr. Dixon Chan, Director of Tiostone, states, “Ms. Lai is doing a great job… but we need 1,000 Aprils”.

Fortunately, the outlook may not be as bleak as it seems:
“The fact that Green Glass Green, which began its collections 18 months ago, receives some government financing shows that the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department is starting to take glass recycling seriously,” Ms. Lai said.

There is hope yet. Thanks to Ms. Lai.

Visit Ms. Lai at GreenGlassGreen

One of our ambassadors, Jenn Robson, wanted to share a sweet fruity summer cocktail with us!

Because let’s be honest: it’s finally summer-time, the sun is shining so why not celebrate this time of year with a nice chilled glass of something delicious. Checking out some cocktail recipes, Jenn stumbled on her favourite: a rather scrummy Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri cocktail which is tasty, fresh and ‘technically’ contains one of your 5-a-day!
Frozen strawberry daiquiri recipe:

• 1 oz fresh strawberries
• 1/2 oz strawberry schnapps
• 1 oz light rum 1 oz lime juice
• 1 tsp powdered sugar
• Lots of ice!!

First of all let your glass chill while you’re making the cocktail – Fill the glass with ice and cold water and let it sit for a little while. Trust Jenn in this one, you’ll appreciate the crispness this will provide to your finished cocktail.

Blend all of the ingredients together in a blender with the ice. Serve in a martini-style cocktail glass. Slice up a fresh strawberry and garnish the top of the cocktail for a professional touch.

Serve and enjoy!

The drink is rumoured to have been invented in the 1900’s in a bar named Venus located in Santiago, Cuba. Originally the drink was served in a tall glass packed with cracked ice. However you decide to enjoy your favourite cocktail, make sure your glass is nicely chilled.

Do you have a glassy recipe yourself? Share it on our website or Facebook page!

Interest in glass packaging, and the efforts of the friends of glass movement to win the support of the general public to see more food and drink products in glass on the supermarket shelves, took a step forward at the BBC Good Food Show Summer in the UK.

Thousands of people came on to the Friends of Glass stand to find out just why glass is the preferred packaging for the majority of people. And many of these visitors signed up to become friends of glass themselves.

Rebecca Cocking from British Glass describes the five day event as the most popular consumer food show in the UK, and one of the largest of its type in Europe:

“We thought that last November’s event, our first Friends of Glass presence at a major consumer show in the UK, was as good as it could get, but the past 5 days have exceeded all our expectations.

“It was very encouraging to hear so many people express their passion for glass packaging, and urging us to keep up the campaign to persuade more retailers to stock more products in glass. Their comments confirmed the findings of our recent research that glass is better for health, taste and the environment.”

Visitors to the Stand were invited to indicate their favourite products packaged in glass, and to enter a competition to with £250 worth of groceries. The results will be announced shortly.

The green glass cut by 20% CO2 emissions, but not sales of bottles of wine. During the London Wine Fair 2011, Gavin Partington communications director of the Wine and Spirits Trade Association, presented a survey addressing the attitudes of buyers of alcoholic beverages in front of the colored bottles. It was conducted in collaboration with Australian Vintage and Sainsbury’s to 1124 consumers. In the case of wine, 95% of consumers do not differentiate between a recycled green glass and clear glass.
When they observed this change, 80% of buyers say they are not influenced in their acquisition. 90% think that even if they were aware of the environmental aspect of green glass containers, they would choose preferentially. 60% of respondents said they would be very sensitive to labeling bottles, green glass as being more environmentally friendly. Read the study :
http://www.wrap.org.uk/downloads/Going_Green_report_FINAL_version_3_.3b2e108f.10768.pdf

Anne-Sophie published a new book for children to know everything on glass : D’où vient le verre de mon verre… Read more : http://www.paperblog.fr/3700385/d-ou-vient-le-verre-de-mon-verre/

Take tens of thousands of pieces of glass, intricately woven into 15 monumental installations, and you’ll truly see something spectacularly breathtaking – two words we don’t use often together in a sentence.

See for yourself:

The works are creations of Dale Chihuly, one of the most sought-after glass artists in the world, as part of a new exhibition at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Michigan, USA between now and September 30th.

Dale’s works on display will include  chandeliers, glass towers up to 30 feet high, floating spheres, reeds rising from the earth, the sun, the moon, and a rowboat full of glass.

“This exhibition celebrates one of the world’s foremost glass artists and his much-anticipated return to Meijer Gardens,” said Joseph Becherer, chief curator and vice president. “Specifically created for this exhibition, Chihuly’s sculptural glass infuses his expression of nature with the stunning landscape of our grounds.”