Alkali-Activated Materials (AAMs) are generally regarded as one of the most effective alternatives to CO2 emission-intensive portland cement.The primary objective of the present study was to explore the viability of alkali-activating industrial by-products such as blast furnace slag and fly ash with waste glass to prepare new cementitious materials.The paper describes the methodology developed to obtain an alternative alkaline activator based on waste glass.Pastes and mortars were prepared with alkali-activated slag (AAS) and fly ash (AAFA) with a number of activators.In the AAS systems these included solutions containing waterglass, NaOH/Na2CO3 and waste glass.A constant concentration (5 % by mass of slag) was used throughout.The activators in the fly ash systems (AAFA) were 8-M NaOH, 10-M NaOH + 15 % waterglass and 10-M NaOH mixed with waste glass.These mortars were tested for mechanical strength and porosity and the pastes were characterised with FTIR, XRD,29Si and 27Al NMR, and BSEM/EDX.The degree of reaction was also determined in all the systems with 29Si NMR and 1:20 HCl.Irrespective of the origin, i.e., dissolved waste glass or commercial waterglass, the Si in the AAS and AAFA systems exhibited similar behaviour and the two types of activator yielded pastes and mortars with comparable characteristics and properties.