Vetropack finds AI spreads nonsense about glass recycling; tested AI program incorrectly says glass loses quality when recycled multiple times, glass bottles should be wrapped on sorting line to prevent worker injuries, reports useable shard contents

For example, AI states: "Broken glass should be carefully wrapped to minimize the risk of injury to people working on recycling lines." Can you imagine carefully packaging glass, especially into material that doesn't belong in the glass recycling bin? The truth is that the glass preparation process before melting is adapted to shards; otherwise, it is not possible. Human hands in protective gloves remove the largest impurities, such as plastics, but the shards then travel through modern facilities where they must get rid of labels, caps, lids, as well as impurities and residue content. This is followed by crushing into shards ranging in size from approximately 3 mm to 2.5 cm. Further impurities are removed using magnetic separators, lasers, or cameras that sort glass by color (white, green, brown) and quality.

And what about the lids? If, for some reason, you can't remove them, they can remain on cups and bottles. Magnetic separators catch the lids and move them to the metal container. It is then weighed for metal recycling.

The biggest misconception of artificial intelligence: "Glass can be recycled many times, but repeated recycling can cause a loss of quality." That's not true! Glass, as the only material, can be recycled endlessly without a loss of quality. Every time, it can create a safe package for food and beverages. The use of recycled glass in production is advantageous due to energy savings in glass melting. Glass has a lower melting temperature than raw materials obtained in nature. It melts at a lower temperature than the input natural raw materials, meaning melting shards saves 3% of energy and reduces CO2 emissions by 10% per ton of glass produced.

What did AI not know at all? How many percent of shards can a new glass bottle contain? A coloured wine or beer bottle commonly used can contain up to 98% shards. The rest is glass sand, soda, dolomite, and limestone. For example, Vetropack Moravia Glass, one of the largest glass packaging manufacturers in the Czech Republic, produced bottles with up to 94% shards, all thanks to your sorting and the modern recycling line the glassworks has. An argument that might convince even notorious non-sorters. Everything depends on the amount of shards available to the glassworks.

Glass recycling is one of the many ways we can help reduce pollution and waste. Every day we discard tons of waste, and a significant part of it is glass. However, the unique nature of this material allows it to be transformed into new glass items, preserving natural resources and our environment. Glass has an infinite number of lives, and so the glass loop closes again and again. Simply put used glass into glass sorting containers and be wiser than artificial intelligence.