The colour of glass

[campbellking]

Not quite science, but a question about glass. Was recycling bottles at the glass bank the other day, which has containers for clear, brown and green glass, when a gentleman approached with a bottle made of blue glass and queried which container he should put it in. I couldn't offer a suggestion, so he put it in the green, saying this was the closest colour. My friend informs me that blue is 'painted' clear glass, so he should have put it in this. Is either correct?

[WaldoMcFroog]

Small concentrations of cobalt (0.025 to 0.1%) yield blue glass.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass

As for which is the closest, blue is certainly closest to green of the colours available.

[ursula62]

I don't suppose it matters that much anyway. One morning, after carefully sorting all my bottles into the various colours and popping them in the bottle bank, a dustbin van came along and emptied all the bottle banks. The colours all got mixed up together in the back of the lorry as they were crushed.

I rang the council and asked why this happened and they said it was their policy to mix glass colours.

[AliFlump]

My boyf works for a company that makes green and brown glass bottle and he was talking about how if the bottles are not good enough to go the customer they get melted down and made again. I said oh do you have a different chute for the different colours and he said no it dont make any difference once they are melted!! He also takes the milk bottles in to be recycled

[campbellking]

Thanks for your comments. Maybe I shall spend less time separating my housemates' brown beer bottles from their green wine bottles before lobbing them in the bins. however, the green ones usually make a more satisfying smashing noise...