Glass giant Pilkington is recycling glass from demolished buildings and supplying it to a £100m Liverpool city region regeneration project. Tony McDonough reports
A £100m project to transform St Helens town centre is using glass recycled from demolished buildings supplied by iconic local manufacturer Pilkington.
Contractor VINCI has started work on the project which is being led by St Helens Council in partnership with ECF – a joint venture between Homes England, L&G, and Muse. It will see new homes, a hotel, a market hall and office space.
Part of the NSG Group, glassmaker Pilkington has helped to lower carbon and reduce waste in the project by recovering glass from former buildings and recycling it for new and retrofitted buildings in the first phase development.
It has recovered 7.34 tonnes of glass from buildings being demolished as part of the town’s transformation. The amount is roughly the same as the annual glass recycling of 150 average households.
Instead of going to landfill, the glass has been melted down and used to create new float glass, a process that saved 5.13 tonnes of CO2 emissions, along with 8.8 tonnes of virgin raw materials.
This glass was recovered from two key sites being cleared in the town centre – the Hardshaw Centre, St Helens’ shopping centre which stood for 40 years, and the town’s main bus station as part of early regenerative work.
Demolition contractor Bradley Group supported the project by collecting and removing the glass from site, while Pilkington UK assessed the glass, advised on its removal, and coordinated the processing for re-use.
Bea Roberts, specification manager, said: “This project is as much about protecting our future as it is about honouring our past. By reusing and recycling glass, we’re cutting waste and building a more sustainable town centre.
“This circular practical approach puts sustainability at the heart of regeneration, helping us to build a cleaner future for our industry and local community.”
Pilkington UK recycled the glass via its renew:glass scheme, which aims to increase the amount of flat glass that is recycled. The glass is sorted and processed into cullet, small fragments that can be melted down more efficiently.
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This reduces construction waste and lowers the carbon footprint of the glass manufacturing process. The work also supports NSG Group’s Science Based Targets Initiative.
Cllr Richard McCauley, Cabinet Member for Regeneration at St Helens Council, added: “As a council committed to making waste a thing of the past and reaching net zero by 2040, we’re proud to see glass recycled, not discarded, as part of the town’s regeneration programme.”