We are FCC - Nº9

Glass , a 100% recyclable material Recycling glass is part of the daily routine of citizens. So much so that it is the most recycled material be- cause it is the first one that we star- ted to sort in the early eighties. Spain can boast of being one of the leading countries in recycling this material. According to Ecovidrio, a non-pro- fitable organization in charge of managing the recycling of all glass containers deposited in bins throu- ghout Spain, the glass recycling rate in 2018 in Spain was 76.5%, repre- senting a 3.5 point increase over the estimate for 2017. The glass recycling rate in the Eu- ropean Union should be nearly 95% by 2030. Why should we recycle glass? This material is recycled because all of can be reused, thereby preventing the extraction of other raw mate- rials. This reduces the environmen- tal impact produced by mining these other materials. Ecovidrio indicated that in 2019 it was possible to prevent the emission of nearly 520,000 tonnes of CO2, equi- valent to flying more than 120 times around the world. It prevented the ex- traction of 1,072,800 tonnes of raw materials, equivalent to 100 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower and made it possible to save almost 1,400,000 MwH of energy, sufficient for supplying all hospitals in Spain over a three-mon- th period. Furthermore, selective co- llection in green containers in 2008 amounted to 840,261 tonnes of glass containers, 6.5% up year-on-year. Each citizen sorted and deposited an average 18 kilograms of glass per inha- bitant, that is, about 68 glass containers per person. I N N O V A T I O N 44 I N N O V A T I O N