Agree on collection
Work with hotels and commercial sites to identify suitable used bottles, storage space and collection arrangements.
Student-led circular glass initiative
Building a system
Building a system
where glass has
a future.
Connecting discarded glass, the people who handle it, and the communities that can give it a second life.
233 tonnesGlass collected across the project
2 + 2Hotels & commercial districts
2 schoolsAbout 110 students reached in Heyuan
47Valid Huangcun student surveys
Collection and partner figures: project-reported, 2024–2026. Student reach: estimated across the two-year education initiative. Survey: Huangcun, 12 June 2026.
01 / The initiativeA bottle is only
A bottle is only
the beginning.
5%
The “5” in Penro5e marks a starting ambition: incorporating 5% post-consumer recycled glass, then exploring how to go further. Silas proposed the name, inspired by Roger Penrose and the idea of continuing possibility.
Penro5e connects practical glass collection with a wider question: what makes a recycling system work for the people inside it?
The project brings together hotel and commercial-site coordination, school workshops, interviews and survey analysis. Related studies in urban sociology and family environmental learning extend its questions about participation in everyday systems. The aim is to link environmental value with a repeatable system of collection, participation and industrial reuse.
Post-consumer recycled glass, or PCR glass, comes from products that have already been used. Turning it into a useful raw material requires clear sorting rules, reliable collection and manufacturing expertise.
How the project took shape
Developing the idea
The Penro5e name grew from Silas's initial idea: connect recovered glass with industrial demand and community benefit.
Making collection workable
Observing daily glass volumes and discussing transport costs with the logistics company led to a three-day collection plan and a route to the factory. Dedicated, labelled bins made storage, identification and collection easier at each site.
Listening and investigating
Visits, worker interviews and school surveys brought practical barriers into view, including the gap between environmental awareness and knowing how to participate.
Teaching and communicating
School activities brought recycling into the classroom. Photographs, survey findings and project posts recorded the work and shared what was learned.
The initiative brings together student-led coordination, education and research with industrial support from BelleCraft, Silas's family business, which provides staff, transport and manufacturing capacity.
Follow the hotel and customer conversations ↗02 / Putting the loop to workFrom used bottles
From used bottles
to a usable resource.
Each handover matters. Collection only becomes circular when the material can be traced, prepared and used again.
Project photographs: collected bottles, material inspection and factory storage.
Sort and record
Separate the accepted glass stream, count or weigh incoming material, and record each handover.
Prepare for manufacturing
Factory teams inspect and prepare recovered glass for use as cullet, the crushed glass added to a glassmaking batch.
Close the loop
Incorporate suitable PCR material into new glass products, with manufacturing and quality records documenting its use.
Solving storage & logisticsRoom to store.
Room to store.
A plan to collect.
Across two hotels and two commercial districts, daily glass volumes differed and collection points were spread out. A workable recycling system needed to account for transport costs as well as storage and collection.
A clear place for glass.
A simpler handover.
Each site handled several kinds of waste. Recovered glass needed a designated place to wait for pickup and a clear way for the logistics team to identify it.
Silas proposed providing dedicated, clearly labelled glass-collection bins at all four sites and coordinated their provision with BelleCraft's operational support.
Site staff could place the glass in the marked bins. The collection team could then identify the right material and collect the glass directly from the bins. One arrangement addressed storage, identification and handover.
A collection plan
that makes economic sense.
Daily pickups would have been costly because the four sites were separated and generated different amounts of glass.
Silas observed the daily volume at each point, used those figures to assess collection options, and discussed the calculations and costs with the logistics company.
Together they settled on collection every three days. Silas designed the route around the locations of the four pickup points, linking them to the factory. The plan considered the cost of moving the glass alongside the environmental value of recovering it.
Partnerships in practiceFrom dialogue
From dialogue
to action.
A collection agreement needs follow-through. A recycled-glass sample needs a customer's scrutiny. These exchanges show how both moved forward.
Hotel partnershipJuly–September 2024
Rosewood Guangzhou
Turning a recycling proposal into a documented collection partnership.
- Work through the requirements
Silas coordinated supplier documentation and proposed collection records and photographs as an alternative to sharing another hotel's contract.
- Send the agreement and follow up
The recycling agreement was emailed on 31 July. On 29 August, Silas followed up on the company-stamped copy sent earlier that month.
- Complete the exchange
On 2 September, the hotel confirmed that its stamp had been added and the agreement sent back by courier.
“The contract was stamped today.”Read the hotel email excerpts
Sending the recycling agreement
附件为“酒店进口玻璃水瓶回收协议”，请您查收！谢谢。English translationAttached is the agreement for recycling the hotel's imported glass water bottles. Please check the attachment. Thank you.
Following through on the paperwork
我们于8月16日把盖了我们公章的“进口玻璃水瓶回收协议”寄给您，我想了解一下酒店是否已经完成了盖章流程呢？English translationWe sent you the glass-water-bottle recycling agreement bearing our company stamp on 16 August. I would like to ask whether the hotel has completed its stamping process.
The hotel's confirmation
合同今天刚完成盖章English translationThe contract was stamped today.
The reply also confirmed that the agreement had been returned by courier.
Customer collaborationAugust–October 2024
FP · 5% PCR glass
Putting recycled-glass samples in front of a customer, then responding to the questions they raised.
- Introduce the samples
On 5 August, Silas introduced a 5% PCR trial and proposed a comparison of bottles made with and without recycled glass.
- Listen to the customer's feedback
In September, FP reported similar surface quality and clarity, then asked how the approach would apply to a heavy-base 100 mL fragrance bottle.
- Respond and provide documentation
Silas explained the choice of trial product and continued the technical exchange, including an October follow-up sharing reports for regular, non-PCR glass.
“surface quality and clarity looked pretty much the same.”Read the FP email excerpts
Introducing the 5% PCR trial
We are thrilled to inform you that we have successfully conducted a trial of incorporating 5% PCR glass into our products.
Comparing the samples
I compared the regular and PCR samples, surface quality and clarity looked pretty much the same.
A question about another bottle format
Do you see the molding properties and end result being similar if this was done on a heavy base fragrance 100ml bottle?
Silas → FP · 10 September 2024
We chose this product without considering that it is thin wall or thick wall, but just happened to be producing this product at the time of PCR testing.
Following up on technical documentation
Of course. Pls kindly find the attachments of Heavy Metal and REACH report on regular (non PCR) glass. Thanks.
How to read the project impact figures
The Penro5e presentation reports 233 tonnes of glass collected over three project years and engagement with two hotels and two commercial districts. These totals describe the wider collection operation supported by the company; they are not school-only collection figures or material handled by Silas alone.
The reported US$48,000 represents company proceeds after costs, as clarified by the project team. It is not income distributed to students or a confirmed Glass Circularity Fund balance.
The presentation also estimates 135 tonnes of CO₂ reduction, 304 MWh of energy savings and 280 tonnes of virgin raw-material displacement, using FEVE life-cycle data. These are modelled estimates from the presentation, not directly measured project savings.
03 / Field notesThe people
The people
behind the glass.
Two PCR hotel visits and a separate urban-sociology field visit show a shared method: go to the setting, listen to the people there, and ask how everyday systems work.
PCR fieldwork · 17 July 2026 · Guangzhou
Mandarin Oriental
A visit to the hotel's back-of-house collection area to hear from staff involved in handling waste and recovered materials.
PCR fieldwork · 17 July 2026 · Guangzhou
Rosewood
Conversations with people working within the collection system, extending the project beyond logistics to daily experience.
Related sociology fieldwork · 1 August 2026
Urban village interviews
Listening in an urban village brings community organisation and everyday life into focus. This visit is presented alongside Silas's Pioneer research on Shipai Village, with its own research questions.
Different settings.
A shared interest in people.
The PCR interviews involve four workers across two hotels. The urban-village study is a separate sociology project. Together they open questions about coordination, participation and whose experience is visible when a system is designed.
Explore the research connections ↗04 / Learning togetherFrom the collection
From the collection
point to the classroom.
School activities combine a lesson on the second life of glass with questions, hands-on learning and conversations about participation.
20 June 2025 · Heyuan
Lankou Primary School
An introduction to the journey of a glass bottle, with classroom discussion and interactive activities. The film documents the project team and students taking part.
Open original recording12 June 2026 · Heyuan
Huangcun Town Central Primary School
A workshop with around 50 students, documented alongside 47 valid surveys, five student interviews and discussions with around 11 teachers and school representatives.
Open full activity recordingMore activity recordings
05 / What the survey revealedCaring is a start.
Caring is a start.
Knowing how matters.
At Huangcun, students expressed positive environmental attitudes. Practical sorting knowledge and confidence were less secure.
23.4%
Only 11 of 47 students selected exactly the two bottle types accepted in the lesson's ordinary glass-recycling stream.
Huangcun pilot · 12 June 2026
47 valid surveys · mainly Grade 5
The gap between values and practice
Mean scores on a 1–5 scale. Valid responses: bin confidence n=46; other indicators n=45. Missing responses excluded. Source: Huangcun ImpactTracking workbook, raw survey data.
View the data and methodology
This was a single-school pilot. A full matching post-activity survey was not collected, so the results are used as baseline and impact-tracking evidence. They do not establish a before-and-after improvement or long-term behaviour change.
| Indicator | Responses | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Had clear or some knowledge of glass recycling | 27 / 47 | 57.4% |
| Knew a bottle could become a new glass product | 35 / 47 | 74.5% |
| Correctly selected only the two suitable bottle types | 11 / 47 | 23.4% |
| Partially correct or confused about suitable items | 32 / 47 | 68.1% |
| Rated environmental benefit 4 or 5 | 32 / 45 | 71.1% |
| Rated willingness to participate 4 or 5 | 28 / 45 | 62.2% |
| Rated the fund incentive 4 or 5 | 31 / 45 | 68.9% |
The sample includes 43 Grade 5 and four Grade 2 responses. The classification question treats only perfume bottles and glass beverage bottles as fully correct for the collection stream taught in this activity. Different glass types may require separate specialist recycling routes.
Five open responses and five student interviews supplement the survey, together with feedback from around 11 teachers and school representatives. Student quotations are anonymised and reproduced from the interview manuscript, where some wording was lightly cleaned.
Make the next action clear.
The low confidence score points toward simple bin labels, sorting demonstrations and repeated practice. Awareness needs an understandable way to act.
Design around safety.
Teachers identified safety as their first concern, followed by management and a link to a recycler. Follow-up collection should be adult-supervised; children should not handle broken glass.
Make benefits visible.
Students linked the proposed Glass Circularity Fund to school supplies, environmental activities and helping others. The fund remains a proposal needing clear purpose and oversight.
A student's takeaway
Immediate learning response
Huangcun interview manuscript
“I learned that glass can be recycled, but not all glass is recyclable.”
06 / A growing body of workA developing practice.
A developing practice.
More questions each year.
Build the connections
Hotel correspondence, collection agreements and 5% PCR sample outreach connect the idea to operational partners and customers.
Bring glass into the classroom
The Lankou school activity makes glass recycling tangible through learning and participation.
Ask what students understand
The Huangcun workshop adds surveys and interviews to examine knowledge, confidence and practical barriers.
Follow the human side
PCR hotel-worker interviews and separate urban-sociology fieldwork extend Silas's practice of listening in the places he studies.
Timeline distinguishes Silas's documented work from BelleCraft's earlier corporate recycling materials dated 2023.
07 / Connected questionsMaterials circulate.
Materials circulate.
Ideas and habits do, too.
Penro5e sits within a wider body of work about participation: how a community coordinates, how a family learns, and how a design makes an environmental action easier.
How does a community
organise itself?
Silas's Shipai Village study examines informal coordination, digital infrastructure and internal inequality. It takes everyday community arrangements as a subject of research in their own right.
38page research paper
2field visits
13digital source items
The connection to Penro5e A useful lens for asking who coordinates a recycling system, who can participate, and whose experience is overlooked.
Can children bring
environmental habits home?
A study of reverse environmental socialisation explores how children may influence adults' recycling behaviour. Silas reviewed eight studies, built a systems model and designed an interview instrument for parents and grandparents.
8studies reviewed
17interview questions designed
The connection to Penro5e The school workshops create a practical reason to ask what children might carry home from a lesson, and how adults respond.
Family interviews and measured changes in household behaviour are not reported here.
A related environmental design project · NIM
Making the practical step easier.
In a separate microplastics laundry-filtration project, Silas led a five-person team through three prototypes. In the team's reported prototype tests, leakage decreased from 120 mL to 0 mL and cleaning time from four minutes to one minute.
Its connection is a design habit shared with Penro5e: identify a practical barrier, change the system, and check what improves. These are prototype results, not glass-recycling outcomes.
08 / Sharing the workThe project,
The project,
in its own words.
Selected project posts written by Silas and published through BelleCraft Glass. The original screenshots preserve the wording of each post.
LinkedIn · Project identity
Why Penro5e?
The name links an initial 5% recycled-glass ambition with continuous improvement and the possibility of going further.
LinkedIn · Hotel partnership
Rosewood joins the loop
A project update announces the collection of used glass water bottles from Rosewood Hotel Guangzhou for manufacturing reuse.
LinkedIn · Hotel partnership
Mandarin Oriental
Documenting a collection partnership and the effort to bring more participants into the glass-recycling loop.
LinkedIn · Earth Day
Starting with 5% PCR
An Earth Day message introduces the integration of post-consumer recycled glass into products.