Long-recycled materials such as glass tend to need established collection and processing systems.
In the last two decades, glass recycling has increased substantially in developed countries. Danish recycling of glass containers as a proportion of consumption has increased from 10% in 1983, to 48% in 1992, to 68% in 1993. Glass can be recycled many times without losing quality.
In Brazil in 1999, the recycling rate for glass packaging was 40% of the 890,000 tonnes produced each year.