A Mayo company says it has the answer to a huge waste mountain of glass, writes MARK HENNESSY, London Editor

EACH NIGHT, thousands of British pubs and hotels fill countless bins full of empty glass bottles, creating waste that costs each of them dearly in refuse charges, licensing headaches and staff costs.

Now Pel Recycling, based in Balla, outside Castlebar, Co Mayo, in alliance with a north London-based Irish publican, believes that it has the solution with a revolutionary under-counter glass crusher.

The crusher, known as “Baby Jaws”, safely compacts the glass with less than the noise of a dishwasher, reducing refuse collections by 80 per cent and leaving bar staff free to serve customers, rather than spending time in the cellars.

The alliance between Pel, headed by Baby Jaws inventor and engineer Tommy Griffith (35) and publican Gerry O’Boyle, emerged after the Sligo-born owner of the Boogaloo pub in Highgate went in search of ways of cutting his own waste bill.

Now, he is selling Baby Jaws in the UK and, already, a number of significant pub chains and hotels are showing interest in the product. Baby Jaws was launched in February and was unveiled earlier this month to a trade audience in Australia.

“Empty bottles are a major issue for the licensed trade,” O’Boyle says. “In many places, they are not allowed to put them out at night because the clinking of glass causes noise problems and annoys neighbours.”

While glass-crushers are nothing new, Baby Jaws is unique because of its size, that it fits under bar counters and for its low noise. It is also covered by a global patent, Griffiths says.

Exports will be the key to Pel Recycling’s future.

“The biggest pub-chain in Ireland has 22 pubs,” Griffiths adds. “In the United Kingdom, the biggest has 1,700, but the design and manufacture stays in Ireland. That way, I can guarantee quality.”

The Mayo businessman, who worked for an agricultural equipment company before becoming a salesman in Scotland and the northeast of England, was a finalist in the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards in 2009.

“Publicans would not have been champions of the environment up to now, but they are adapting and quickly because they see commercial reasons to save money,” says O’Boyle, who has set up Telegreen to sell the crushers in the UK.

Glass of all shapes and colours – bar the largest spirit optic bottles – can be handled by the crusher. “Colours don’t have to be separated because laser technology in the recycling plants sorts it out later,” he adds.

Despite the fact that 600,000 tonnes of glass is thrown out each year by UK licensed premises, much of it currently ends up in landfill, even though glass can be endlessly recycled.

In London, most of it is sent back into the furnace and recycled – not just to be made into bottles again, but to be used in work-tops, road aggregates and as a sand substitute, O’Boyle says.

Each wheelie bin costs pubs £3 in London to empty, plus annual service charges. “The crushers saves every which way,” he adds. “Bin lorries don’t have to come as frequently, but it isn’t just about being green. It is about getting the job done.”