The Framers Forum

Can anyone advise the best way to dispose of glass responsibly?
We run a new business from home and off cuts are starting to build up.
Thanks in advance for any replies.

I just take them to the nearby 'skip'. They said I could dump all the offcuts in the non recyclable container. They make a satisfying crash too when I dump a load in btw

I have an annual contract with Wessex, which costs me £30.00 a year and they then provide plastic boxes to keep in the workshop, which they then collect for £2.50 a throw when they're full. Works really well for me and I would rather the glass was being recycled. I just regard is as another necessary overhead, and works out at no more than about £1.00 a week in practice.

I don't generate a huge amount of glass, which I need to put into the dumpster. When I get down to the point where I can still save left overs that are still a usable size I put those bits to one side and every now and then made up some ready made frames using left over bits of moulding and discontinued moulding bargains.

Very often I will get some clearance mouldings about this time of year and customers who come in wanting something later for Christmas are happy to pick something from my "special" collection, but also I get to make up some interesting ready made rames. Deep box frames are very popular, I also use a fair amount of oak mouldings and have plenty of left overs, so oak ready made frames are quite easy to sell as well.

I'm located in a small rural town, which used to be a busier town, but now is not so busy these days and the secret to shifting ready made frames round here is price them to sell. Since they are all made from decent quality left overs and discontinued mouldings, I can afford to price them attractively and don't lose out by doing so.

Boring looking discontinued mouldings get stacked, with other mouldings to make something more interesting and some mouldings get cut down on my band saw to make spacers, etc. Very little gets wasted and as most of the saw dust go downward into the lower blade housing on the band saw and into the vacuum cleaner, it does not need that much cleaning up afterwards. I guess it's fair to call me a bit old fashioned and old school in my thinking, but if you are not continuously rushed off your feet, it still makes sense for some of us to think like this.

I also have an electric scroll saw and can cut out little cradles from moulding off cuts, which are used for object framing. Very often it is possible to retain objects to be framed with long nylon tags which disappear into tiny holes within the cradle and to position these tiny holes to be hidden from view under the object in the cradle. Very little is only fit for waste, but for larger businesses not everything is always practical.