What Happens to All That Glass?

Ever think of all the potential future uses of that glass bottle or jar you just tossed into the recycling bin? A wide variety of both functional and beautiful products, ranging from Mod Rocks‘ architectural tiles, to Ice Stone’s countertops and flooring material, and even barware made from old or broken car windshields, are now being made from discarded glass. Thanks to its inherent properties, glass is often able to be recycled more frequently than other materials, re-formed into a wide range of different shapes and colors, and is becoming a sought after source material for many design and architectural projects.

Once retrieved from curb-side by municipal or private recycling service, discarded glass is then washed, color sorted and crushed at a recycling facility, at which point, it is ready to be reconstituted. The “cullet”, or crushed glass, is then transported to a particular manufacturing plant, either to be combined with concrete or other material (e.g., Ice Stone), or in its more traditional process, taken back to its viscous state after being mixed with sand, soda ash and limestone, and fed into a furnace for melting - crushed glass actually aids the process by lowering the melting temperature, and making for more stable results. The glass, in viscous state, may then be poured into molds or distributed in another way, resulting in its intended product, such as architectural tiles, drinking glasses, or more commonly, road beds, food containers and beverage bottles. Although perhaps counterintuitive, it’s worth noting that glass always remains in a super-cool liquid state, even when rigid and seemingly stable in the form of a final product.

This process represents a major positive effort in stemming the flow of waste to the landfill, but efforts to implement bottle bills throughout the U.S. (many countries are ahead of us in this regard), as well as enhance those that exist, are still needed. Great things to keep in mind as we all become more committed to recycling (or reusing) as much as we can!

Also, see Glass, How is It Made from the Ecolect Blog

Why does Germany LOVE to Recycle glass? on You Tube

Reclaiming Tires: Design Within Reach Style

As a part of Design Within Reach’s new business strategies, they’ve been pushing hard to get eco-friendly products to the market. This new product from their rubber tire line was inspired by by the fact that “Americans alone toss out about 300 million tires every year.” These products are modeled using ancient leather-crafting techniques and actually made in Egypt. They are hand-cut and hand-sewn wile being useable indoors and out for planters, carrying containers or simply durable storage. Each container is durable and unique, offering a functional alternative to the landfill. To quote the folks at Design Within Reach, “the big thinkers of the world are working on creative ways to reuse this vast quantity of rubber – ideas include mixing ground-up tires with urethane to create sidewalks or burning them like coal to produce energy.” Their goal is to take this concept to the consumer market, creating smaller but important opportunities for material reuse in the product design industry.