UK: Recycled bottle for the building industry.

The UK has improved its recycling record recently, but there is still a long way to go; the UK recycling industry will need to double in size by 2018 to £25bn just to meet current EU targets. Green Bottle Unit – an innovative London social enterprise – is working hard to establish recycled glass as a beautiful and usable resource in the building industry. Its mission is to produce beautiful, hardwearing building materials from 100% recycled glass. The unit, a first in its field, brings together creative innovation and environmental sustainability. It combines its expertise in art, science and technology to explore the creative potential for recycled glass surfaces. A team of designers, artists and craftspeople all contribute to the creation of the products, which are for use in the architectural design industry. They have created ?eluna?, a beautiful hardwearing material which can be used for surfaces, tiles and pavers. A tactile, marble-like material, eluna is striking enough to rival the qualities of granite, marble and onyx, and tough enough to replace stone, cement, ceramic and synthetic-based material products. Green Bottle Unit was set up in April 2005 by the Free Form Arts Trust in association with the artist David Watson. Free Form and Green Bottle Unit have already worked on a number of high profile projects, including recycled glass paving for the Hartford Street Development in Tower Hamlets, London, external paviours on Reading?s busy Broad Street shopping area, and three bespoke glass wall installations for Kamakura House in Japan for architects Foster and Partners. www.green-bottle.co.uk