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Hidden “mountains” of thousands of bottles are continuing to stack up in Jersey, unknown to many islanders, because the island does not have a dedicated processing facility.
But the growing piles at La Collette could finally be addressed under plans being explored as part of an emerging collaboration between a local architect and the government.
Mike Waddington spotted the mountain range of waste glass; he went to find out more and posted photos of the peaks of bottles “in limbo”, rousing shock and surprise in hundreds of islanders, who shared the images widely on social media.
Pictured: Mike's original post about the "mountains", which generated a lot of attention on social media.
“…You can see bin liners flapping in the breeze. The island owns this valuable product, and we’re throwing it away – I never knew, did you?” he posted.
Since then, Mike has since been questioning if with “a little bit of effort, focus and political support” Jersey could see the material as an opportunity to be “greener”.
An infinitely recyclable material and a valuable commodity, it’s more efficient to recycle glass than it is to make it new. Whilst in the UK, glass is cleaned, sorted and crushed to be re-made into other glass products – Jersey recycles glass in a different way.
Due to the lack of an on-island facilities and the expense of exporting glass to the UK to be processed, Jersey takes waste glass, cleans and crushes it and then uses it to reinforce the sea walls around the reclaimed land at La Collette.
However, the Government recycling team told Express that this sea wall work is soon coming to an end, meaning that the island will have to consider a new approach to waste glass.
Emma Richardson-Calladine – who heads up the Recycling Team – explained that “in the next few years we won’t need that glass for that purpose any more. So this is why it’s an exciting time to be thinking about what comes next.
At this crossroads, Mike is similarly hoping that the island will seize the opportunity presented by glass as a resource not only to be recycled into new glass products, but also to make other products which can be used within construction and even in his line of work whilst designing new buildings.
Having visited the site again with the Government recycling team, Mike posted an update to raise awareness about how individuals dispose of glass, to ensure that it is as un-contaminated as possible by the time it gets to La Collette.
Pictured: Mike Waddington says he would like to use recycled glass in architectural designs.
He also indicated that he is working with the States in order to incorporate recycled glass into the façade designs that his studio produces – suggesting that they call it “bottle dash”.
Recalling how he felt when he first saw the “bottle mountains,” Mike told Express that it was “overwhelming” and he was “shocked” by the sight. Despite this, he emphasised that he “just happened to be there at a point when there was a lot of glass” as it was awaiting a plastic test before being used in to reinforce a sea-wall,
He also said that although islanders can do their bit by removing labels and lids from the glass products they dispose of, he said that “it’s absolutely wrong to say to the public you’re not being responsible enough with your recycling because there’s a limit and whatever system’s in place ought to predict that the glass will never be 100% clean at the point it’s deposited.”
Pictured: Mike said that the issue doesn't lie with individual recyclers.
Speaking of the options open to Jersey, Mike said that glass waste could either be shipped to a processing plant in the UK and then returned to Jersey so the recycled products could be used on-island, or a recycling plant could be built here.
However, he added that the viability of this would have to be evaluated in terms of cost.
Pictured: The 'bottle-dash' glass which Mike collected from La Collette and cleaned.
Elaborating on the options open to Jersey when it comes to waste glass going forwards, Emma said: “We’re starting to look at what comes next for glass recycling and Jersey’s waste glass. We could export it either into Europe or into the UK and go into glass recycling where it would go back into glass production, but when we have looked at that before, that will be very expensive, mainly because glass is so heavy.”
Emma also explained that the fact Jersey collects all colours of glass in one bin rather than them being separated out into clear, green and brown glass would pose problems further along in the process in jurisdictions where different glass is always separated.
“What we would prefer to do is to look at ways to recycle it or reuse it on-island and this makes much more sense for lots of reasons – not just financial. If we can be creating building products out of it then that also helps environmentally the bigger picture. We won’t have to be importing those products and as an island we can be trying to be a little bit more self-sufficient and also putting that waste product to a really good use.”
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