Learning About Glass Recycling from Captain Cullet
A glass packaging manufacturer has created lovable cartoon characters to help teach kids about the importance of glass recycling.
Captain Cullet and Gob o’Glass. Images courtesy of CaptainCullet.com
It is so important to empower our children with knowledge. Educating them about how and why to recycle is a fantastic way to ensure that they will carry the recycling habit with them as they go off to college, to their first job or wherever life takes them. And, now there is a website that makes learning about recycling glass a fun experience: CaptainCullet.com.
Developed by Verallia North America, a glass packaging manufacturer, the site introduces children to Captain Cullet and Gob o’Glass. These likable cartoon characters share animated videos, activities and crafts, coloring books and more to help teach elementary school-aged children, teachers, parents and children’s groups about the importance of recycling glass.
Captain Cullet is a robot that crushes glass containers so they can be melted and made into new glass bottles and jars. Cullet is recycled crushed glass that, when used in the manufacturing process, reduces the need for raw materials and excess energy consumption. Captain Cullet’s sidekick, the little Gob o’ Glass, is an adorable drop of molten glass.
Image courtesy of CaptainCullet.com
Here are some of the glass recycling facts your kids will learn from Captain Cullet and his friends:
Glass containers can be recycled over and over again. Every bit of a glass bottle or jar can be turned into another glass container.
For every glass bottle we recycle, we save enough energy to power a computer for 30 minutes or a TV for 20 minutes. And, more than a ton of natural resources are conserved for every ton of glass recycled.
Most people prefer using glass containers compared to paper, plastic or metal packaging. Glass bottles and jars help maintain the purity and quality of the food and drinks they hold.
Brown and green glass containers can protect inside contents from the sun’s harmful UV rays.
A glass bottle can go from the recycling bin to a store shelf in as little as 30 days.
When making glass containers, we rely on digging up limestone, soda ash and sand from the ground. We call these things raw materials. The earth has a bunch of these particular raw materials, but if we use more cullet, we won’t have to spend as much time digging.
