The diagram illustrates the various stages involved in producing and recycling glass containers, such as bottles. Overall, each process has approximately four to five stages; to be exact, glass production contains four steps and starts with mixing and concludes with a product like a bottle. On the other hand, glass recycling has five stages that begin with collecting used glass and ends with molding into new products.
In the four stages of glass production, raw materials such as sand, soda ash, limestone, and other chemicals are mixed together, then fed into a glass furnace where they are heated to approximately 1500°C to melt. The molten glass is subsequently shaped by blowing to form various glass containers, such as bottles.
In the five steps of glass recycling, the first step is collecting used glasses, which is then sorted by color. The third step involves removing impurities by washing used glasses. Following this, the glass is washed to remove impurities. The cleaned glass is then crushed and melted down, before being molded into new products, thereby completing the recycling process.