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Brewers tackle glass recycling question

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Brewers tackle glass recycling question

Brewers tackle glass recycling question

Much has been made of the glass recycling dilemma lately. Some brewers aren’t waiting to find out how the glass recycling story ends. Instead, they’ve joined forces to help ensure that glass recycling continues despite the cost.

Glass recycling highlights glass benefits

Bottlers are interested in recycling glass because it costs them less to recycle bottles than it does to make bottles from new materials. Lower energy costs mean lower operating costs. This in turn means better profits and an improved ability to tolerate small changes in the cost of production. The recycled content of some container glass is 95% or more, but that typically doesn’t happen in the United States.

About 30% of the container glass in the US actually makes it into the recycling stream. The number could be higher, but many recyclers choose to pulverize the glass and use it for landfill cover instead of truly recycling it.

About 20 major companies that use glass packaging have come together to help ensure the stream of recyclable glass. The US Glass Recycling Coalition consists of consumer goods manufacturers, glass manufacturers, waste and recycling operators, and trade organizations like the Glass Packaging Institute.

The first priority for the coalition is to create, implement and encourage industry-wide best practices that help improve the amount of container glass that makes it into (and out of) the recycling process. One of the first “best practices” is to sort glass out of the recycling stream immediately, instead of waiting to remove it at the end of the sorting process. Removing the glass immediately saves wear and tear on the sorting equipment, decreases the likelihood of breakage, and increases the amount of recyclable glass that gets forwarded to glass recyclers. The long-term goal of the recycling coalition is to reduce energy consumption and to help avoid material shortages in the future.

Glass recycling is part of the growing trend toward using glass. Glass is an exceptionally durable and versatile material for both packaging and decoration. If you’d like some glass inspiration, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Amber and Eric Davila, via Flickr.com

Glass recycling strategies emerge

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Glass recycling strategies emerge

Glass recycling strategies emerge

Glass recycling is shaping up to be one of the great environmental dilemmas of our time. On one hand, people like to recycle glass. It makes them feel good to know that their glass isn’t going to end up in the landfill. Glass manufacturers and producers like recycling glass. The process reduces their energy consumption, and makes the manufacturing process simpler. The process to make “new” glass from recycled stock can consume about 30% less energy, so there’s real incentive to incorporate recycled glass.

Glass recycling is strategically important but unprofitable

On the other hand, recycling glass is easier said than done. The logistics involved in recycling glass are complicated, often because glass is hard to handle, store and transport. Materials reclamation facilities (MRF) are the first stop for recyclables after they’re picked up at the curb. The glass and other materials are sorted and stored, and therein lies the problem. Glass comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. It’s also not homogenous, so it needs to be sorted. Plate glass (float glass) is different than container glass, and the two materials have to be recycled separately.

And then there’s the issue of breakage. Breakage itself isn’t really a problem, since ultimately, recycled glass does get broken into smaller pieces known as “cullet.” But broken glass is hard to handle when you’re not at the cullet stage.

Recyclers don’t want to devote storage space to glass, or handle the volume of glass that gets broken while in their custody. Complicating the equation is the cost of recycled glass. It’s dropped to the point of being more expensive than new glass, and transportation of glass for recycling is expensive. From an economic standpoint, there’s not much incentive to recycle glass.

Industry groups such as the Glass Recycling Coalition are working to establish best practices for municipal glass recycling programs, partially in an effort to make sure they don’t disappear. One reason that getting the glass recycling question right is important is because people are watching. If the glass they put at the curb for recycling ends up in the landfill, they’re less likely to recycle other materials.

One potential option for glass is reusing it, rather than recycling it. Glass can potentially be incorporated into concrete mixtures, fiberglass and aggregate used in road paving. The future of glass recycling isn’t clear, at this point, but glass is becoming a popular and economical surface for decorating.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is specially formulated to bond permanently to glass. It offers superior UV resistance and when applied according to manufacturer guidelines, is guaranteed to perform for at least 10 years.

If you’d like more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Jon Callow, via Flickr.com

Houston reboots glass recycling program

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Houston reboots glass recycling program

Houston reboots glass recycling program

Earlier this year, Houston joined a growing number of US cities that scrapped their glass recycling program because the city’s recycling contractor, Waste Management, determined that it was no longer profitable to include glass in the City’s curbside recycling program. Last week, Houston’s mayor announced that it had reached an agreement with Strategic Materials, the largest glass recycler in North America, to collect Houston’s glass in a pilot program.

Pilot program seeks to re-energize glass recycling

According to the City, Strategic Materials has placed two containers in centralized collection areas for residents to drop off their unwanted container glass. Prior to dropping off the glass, residents are asked to rinse out the containers and remove any caps, lids or corks. Strategic Materials intends to place an additional eight containers in other parts of the city. The City of Houston also operates nine glass drop-off stations for residents who want to recycle container glass.

Under the pilot program with Strategic Materials, the City of Houston will not receive any revenue for the recycled glass, but the pilot offers residents who prefer to recycle glass a free option for safely disposing of container glass.

The issue of glass recycling has emerged in many cities, as they try to cope with the increase in volume of container glass their residents generate at the same time the worldwide demand for recycled container glass has dropped. The City of Houston saved about $2 million by eliminating container glass from the list of items accepted by its curbside recycling program.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, about 28% of all container glass in the US is recycled, and 80% of the recycled glass comes from residential sources. In the absence of municipal container recycling programs, the agency estimates that more than 90% of container glass would end up in landfills.

About half of all states have at least one glass processing facility that can manage recycled container glass. For the states that don’t have processing facilities, that means paying extra to transport recycled glass to the nearest processing plant. That adds costs and reduces the already-slim margins involved in recycling glass. The issue of cost is significant, and few municipalities have come up with cost-effective methods for recycling container glass.

At the same time, glass has become an architectural staple for both interior and exterior design. If you’d like to see some inspiration for decorating with glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center , via Flickr.com

Recycling glass? Not so much in cities

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Recycling glass? Not so much in cities

Recycling glass? Not so much in cities

Earlier this year, Houston joined the growing list of cities that no longer offers curbside recycling for container glass. It seems shocking because we’ve always been told that recycling glass is easy and environmentally conscious. It is, but why are cities like Houston, Marietta GA, Harrisburg, PA, Santa Fe, NM, Baton Rouge, LA and Charleston, SC turning away from collecting glass for recycling?

Recycling glass is problematic, costly

The reasons vary, but it all comes down to money. According to Pratt Industries, the recycler for Spartanburg and Greenville counties in South Carolina, glass is the most costly item to recycle and excluding glass from the recycling stream frees up space in the company’s storage and processing facilities for other recyclable materials.

The National Waste and Recycling Association says that the sorting requirements of glass, combined with its weight and other factors make glass the most likely candidate for elimination from recycling programs. Since glass does not break down or create any toxic byproducts, it can sit safely in a landfill in favor of other less environmentally friendly materials.

Complicating the matter further is the issue of labels. Container glass is frequently labeled with paper-and-glue labels, which tends to foul the recycling stream and requires additional handling. In addition, glass breaks, making it dangerous to handle and sort.

Houston, which recently signed a two-year recycling disposal contract with Waste Management, almost abandoned recycling altogether, after difficult contract negotiations. The city was pressured by a significant budget shortfall, and the city administration was not initially able to come to terms it felt the city could afford. By streamlining the curbside recycling program – including the omission of glass – the city was able to find an arrangement that works.

Despite changes to the curbside recycling program, Houston is still in the glass recycling game. The city maintains collection points where residents who are interested in recycling glass can bring their containers. As the fourth largest city in the US, however, the loss of an easy curbside recycling program for glass means that as many as 25 tons of glass will now end up in Houston’s landfills instead of in a recycling program.

Further complicating the glass recycling picture is the fact that the bottom is dropping out of the market for many recycled materials, including glass. Not being able to find buyers means that slim profit margins on glass are in danger of turning into losses for recyclers, and no one is willing to take on a losing proposition.

In the mean time, gaps in municipal glass recycling programs are being filled by third-parties, although environmentalists and glass manufacturers alike worry that the stream of recyclable glass will diminish – pushing the cost of virgin glass higher and redirecting a material that is infinitely recyclable into the waste stream instead.

Glass is truly infinitely recyclable and reusable. If you’d like ideas for decorating with glass, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Steven Goodwin, via FreeImages.com