Deliveries and glass recycling boosted

Morley Glass and Glazing has taken delivery of six new Luton vans which not only boost its nationwide delivery capacity as demand grows, but greatly increase the amount of post-consumer glass it can collect and recycle through its Crush initiative.

The familiar boxy Luton vans are the first to enter the Morley Glass fleet and are ideally suited to this dual ‘deliver and collect’ role that its delivery drivers now undertake, the company said.

The layout of the vans means that Uni-Blinds sealed units can be better distributed around the space so there is more room for post-consumer glass to be brought back to the Morley Glass factory for recycling.

These vans increase the fleet to 36, which deliver around 4,000 integral blind units every week to customers throughout the UK.

The Crush scheme is a joint initiative from Morley Glass and Saint-Gobain Glass where glass from doors and windows that have been replaced is collected by Morley Glass and then crushed into cullet at its Leeds site. This is then returned in bulk to Saint-Gobain Glass, which pays for the glass cullet, and use to make new float glass. One tonne of cullet saves enough energy to power a home for six months, which is why glass recycling is so vital, the company said.

So far, Morley Glass has returned 549 tonnes of cullet, preventing 158,556kg of CO₂ going into the atmosphere and saving enough energy to power an average home for 264 years. Recycling the post-consumer glass has also saved nearly 450,000kg of virgin sand.

Importantly, the Luton vans will significantly increase the amount of glass that can be processed through the Crush scheme, and therefore make a an even bigger impact to shrink the glass industry’s carbon footprint.

The money generated from the cullet is put into Morley’s GreenVision fund. This allows local schools, community groups and charities across Yorkshire that focus on improving the environment to apply for a donation of up to £500 towards green projects.

Ian Short, managing director at Morley Glass and Glazing, said: “A rapidly growing customer base and increasing sales of Uni-Blinds mean we need to continuously invest in our vehicle fleet to ensure we can maintain our industry-topping lead-times and delivery reliability. But we also have to ensure our fleet best suits the needs of our business today, and as we are bringing more and more post-consumer glass back to Leeds than ever – and we will do even more in future – our new Luton vans tick all the boxes.”