Glass Bottles & Jars
Recyclable?
Blue Bins & Chutes
Other Recycling
Recommended
Specialised Recycling
Our favorite place to recycle glass is at Tzu Chi Environmental Sustainability day. Glass given to them is directly sent to P&R Resources, a glass recycling company.
You may also see P&R bins around but be sure to only put your glass in those if you have permission: F&B outlets need to pay for these bins!
Refind.sg is currently (April 2024) accepting brown, green and clear glass for recycling.
Tzu Chi Sustainability Day
P&R Resource Management
Refind
Alternative
Recycling Bins & Chutes
Glass bottles and jars can be put in blue bins.
Note: we were told by one MRF operator (where recyclables are sorted) that if the glass is broken, they may not handle it due to risk of injury to workers - meaning it won't get recycled. Given the high probability of glass becoming broken once in a blue bin, we prefer the alternatives above.
Blue Bins
Alternative
Freecycle / Give Away
There are occasionally takers for 2nd hand glass bottles and jars through various freecycling channels.
Free Glass bottles / Jars Singapore
Olio
Carousell
Terra SG
Alternative
Specialised Recycling
You may put your glass in a segregated bin but…
These segregated bins are not great for glass. Glass in these bins has a higher chance of ending up in general waste (ie trash) than alternatives above. Why? Glass is expensive to recycle. Businesses can save money by moving the glass out of the recycling bin into the trash. It's easier to do this with segregated bins.
This kind of “cherry picking” is not in line with government guidelines but it often happens.
Segregated Bins
Alternative
Trash
If the glass is broken, wrap it up safely and dispose of it.
Bubble wrap or old padded envelops are great for safely wrapping up broken glass.
Alternative
Tips & Suggestions
Remove caps and recycle those separately.
Caps are usually plastic or metal. Removing them from the glass bottles increases their chance of being recycled.
Info & Insights
Note: not all glass is recyclable.
Recyclable:
- Glass jars and bottles for food, drink and some medicines - usually clear, green, or brown
- Weck & Mason jars (but be sure to remove all metal clamps and rubber rings), Ikea jars
Not recyclable:
- makeup & skin care bottles
- decorative glass
- glass that has been treated to withstand high temperatures - for example glass used for cooking like pyrex or corelle
Rinse and Dry
- Make sure that your bottle is not adding food waste to the recycling system
- Rinse with water (no need to scrub) and dry before recycling
Recycle Lids and Caps Separately
Remove lids and caps and put them in the appropriate metal recycling bins (unless the lids are rusty in which case, throw them out).
It is not necessary to remove the aluminum foil capsule wrapped around the top of wine bottles. Only separate metal parts that are easy to remove.
Read more: Metal Caps
What about broken glass?
Although broken glass is technically recyclable, it is not advisable to put it in the blue bin because it is a safety hazard to workers. In any case, glass that arrives broken at the sorting facility ("MRF") is likely to be discarded for those same safety reasons. Wrap broken glass up safely and put it in the trash.
Did you know?
You cannot incinerate glass. Glass melts at 1500C - way above the temperature of our incinerators (which are at most 1000C). This means 100% of the mass of glass going into the incinerators comes out again! Bottom ash from our incinerators which ends up in Semakau is made of materials that cannot be incinerated, including glass.
Given the fact that glass is difficult to recycle these days (it is expensive to transport to recycling facilities so glass recycling needs to be subsidised) and given that it cannot be incinerated, we encourage you to avoid glass containers whenever there is a good alternative. If you have a choice between a glass or plastic bottle, choose plastic!
If you have read this far you are probably shocked and appalled that we recommend plastic over glass. But if you have read this far, that means you are willing to make the effort to understand this issue more. Read More.
