Morley Glass has won an award in the 2023 GGP Installer Awards in recognition of the free glass recycling service we operate in conjunction with Saint-Gobain Glass, which enables installers to divert their waste glass away from landfill to raise money for good causes.
We were named the winner of the ‘Best Installer Support Programme or Service Initiative’ award at a prestigious ceremony in Manchester, with the judging panel saying that “this initiative is something the industry has been crying out for”.
The awards judges praised the scheme, which enables window and door installers to send their post-consumer glass – removed during window replacement work – to Morley Glass, so it can be crushed at its in-house recycling plant. The glass cullet that results is then sent to Saint-Gobain Glass for use in the manufacture of new glass.
All the money raised through the supply of the glass cullet, which is a valuable raw material in its own right, is diverted into a fund called GreenVision. This is then used to offer £500 grants to micro-initiatives and individuals whose work will improve the local community, environmentally or socially.
Ian Short, MD of Morley Glass said: “We’re over the moon to win this award! We are passionate about recycling and reuse at Morley Glass, so it fantastic to have our glass recycling service recognised by our industry peers.
“A big thank you must go to Saint-Gobain Glass whose support for this initiative is invaluable, and we hope our achievements will inspire others within the industry to consider how they can set up their own recycling schemes, whether that’s for glass, plastic, metal, wood or anything else.
“Many of us recycle routinely at home – often with great commitment. So we believe it is important that we work together as an industry to ensure we have the processes in place to enable us to do the same in the workplace or following work on window and door installations. That’s why we are so proud of what we’ve achieved with our scheme.”
The glass recycling service provided by Morley Glass helps installers save money because they can reduce their waste disposal costs – with some installers who use the scheme estimating that savings can amount to thousands of pounds a year. Local communities and the environment win through the GreenVision grants provided, and Saint-Gobain Glass saves energy because adding cullet to the raw materials mix means less energy is needed in the manufacture of new glass compared with using only virgin raw materials.
Since we installed our recycling plant in 2020, it has generated over 1,000 tonnes of cullet. This has reduced the amount of sand needed for glass manufacture by almost 1,000,000kg and cut CO2 emissions by over 340,000kg.