West Yorkshire-based collector Berryman has led the way for commercial collections since it took over Valpak's Recycle-More-Glass scheme in April 2003. Mick Keogh, general manager of Berryman, said the company had expanded both the number of premises involved in RMG and the tonnages collected since taking it over.
"The market's pretty buoyant at the moment. Our own demand for glass has continued to grow, and we are managing to increase our volumes to help satisfy this," he said. RMG collects about 60,000 tonnes a year from more than 10,000 pubs, clubs and restaurants, but Berryman wants to double that figure by the end of 2005.
Mr Keogh said commercial collections would be "one of the main thrusts" of meeting the glass packaging recycling target of 71% by 2008, not least because most kerbside collections exclude glass. "It's going to be as important or more important than kerbside we need to get a contribution from both commercial and domestic kerbside collections. Neither one will do it on its own, we need to push for both of them," he said.
Licensed premises glass collections on the increase
Collections of used glass bottles from licensed premises are on the increase as glass reprocessors push to meet new recycling targets.