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You've dropped (another) champagne glass and it broke into pieces. Can you stick those shards into the recycling bin, or does that flute go straight into the garbage?
If you guessed garbage, you're right. Curbside programs, for the most part, don't accept glassware with recyclables, according to Conni Kunzler of the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI). Rick Bayer of GPI says this is because these products are composed of various ingredients in different proportions with distinct expansion rates.
According to the EPA, 90 percent of recycled glass is used to make new containers. 
Cookware, Bayer explains, is an example of how some glassware is incompatible with container glass. Some cookware might look like the same glass you find in a pasta sauce jar or a beer bottle, but the glass composition of many types of cookware are in fact very different, resulting in glass that melts at a higher temperature and that has a different rate of expansion. When introduced into a container glass furnace, this cookware glass will not melt and will compromise the quality of the finished products.
Glass is very recyclable, and there is a strong market for the finished product of recycled glass. According to the EPA, 90 percent of recycled glass is used to make new containers. In addition, the material is used in kitchen tiles, counter tops and wall insulation.
The bottom line: keep recycling whole glass containers. If you break a drinking glass, throw those pieces into the trash. If you break that spaghetti sauce jar (hope it was empty!) those pieces can go in the recycling bin. Just don't cut yourself.
Have any questions about what kind of glass you have in your kitchen? Post your questions or comments here.
