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Glass recyclers offer new insight

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Glass recyclers offer new insight

Glass recyclers offer new insight

The recyclability of glass isn’t in question, but glass generates plenty of questions about the best way to recycle it. From a materials perspective, glass is infinitely recyclable. Recycled glass is virtually identical to new glass, except that recycled glass takes less energy to make.

The science behind glass recycling isn’t a problem, but there aren’t many good answers to the economic questions about glass. What’s the best way to recycle glass? How much is recycled glass worth? What’s the best way to sort glass? What’s the best way to transport glass? Who’s going to buy recycled glass? If no one’s going to buy it, what else can glass be used for?

Many curbside recycling programs have eliminated or limit their glass acceptance, primarily because they can’t find markets for the collected glass. Glass needs to be sorted according to color, so for food containers that means separating and storing green, brown and clear glass. In addition, container glass is different than tempered glass, so those types of glass need to be kept separate.

Glass breaks, and handling broken glass is just as dangerous for the workers at the local materials recovery facility (MRF) as it is for the average homeowner. Glass usually isn’t pulverized until it reaches the recycler, which creates transportation and storage problems for the material collectors. It’s no wonder that a number of cities have stopped recycling glass.

A new Wisconsin study shows that it’s still “worth it” to recycle glass. Having said that, much of the savings is realized by the recycler while many of the problems are realized by the handlers. Because demand is so low for container glass right now, the returns on recycled glass are negligible.

Adding to the debate is a complex patchwork of laws related to recycling. Wisconsin, for example, prohibits container glass from being landfilled. That means municipalities and waste handlers need to separate glass from trash, even when there’s nowhere to put it and no one wants to buy it.

Recently, the Associated Recyclers of Wisconsin issued a report that examined the issue of glass recycling and attempted to find ways to make glass recycling easier and more profitable for everyone involved. The ARW report suggests that recyclers invest in new equipment designed to help sort and clean recyclable glass, under the assumption that clean glass is more attractive to potential purchasers than contaminated glass is. In addition, the report suggests that recyclers should create and adopt a standard for glass that it must meet when it leaves the MRF. The report also suggests exploring different re-use markets for container glass, including road construction, landfill cover and construction materials.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Roman Boed , via Flickr.com

Will the Glass Skyscraper Survive?

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Will the Glass Skyscraper Survive?

Will the Glass Skyscraper Survive?

Skyscrapers are a ubiquitous element of the urban landscape. They’re not going away any time soon, but they are evolving. While there are distinct advantages to clustering populations densely, there are also costs. This is evident in traditional skyscraper design. The emergence of new materials like glass has changed the way skyscrapers look, but a new movement is out to change the way the buildings impact their surroundings.

Architects often compete to design the tallest buildings. In major cities around the world there are no shortages of buildings that exceed 60, 70 or even 100 stories. Issues like energy consumption and sustainability are magnified in tall buildings, and they are beginning to change the way tall buildings are designed.

Glass is the current go-to material for “skinning” a tall building. It offers some obvious advantages, but it brings with it challenges that aren’t faced by less transparent architectural designs. Outside of safety, energy consumption is probably the number one concern of architects when proposing a new building. Building owners, cities and tenants are no longer just looking at the cost to build a tower. They want assurances that the cost of operating in the space is manageable, and that the space will be comfortable over the long haul.

Glass has the ability to trap heat. That might be a valuable quality, but heat also rises, so the top floors of a building may become unbearably hot without significant air conditioning. The power needed to cool spaces becomes a real concern because it not only makes the space more expensive to occupy, but it also (eventually) requires power companies to provide additional power generating capacity, or to buy power on the commodity market.

Building more power plants isn’t always an option, and power companies are feeling the pressure from governments to reduce carbon emissions, so that countries can comply with carbon emissions treaty agreements. In addition, developing countries are beginning to modernize their infrastructure. With that modernization comes an increase in consumption.

One effective way to reduce power consumption is to use specialized glass coatings to retain visible light while rejecting the light frequencies that promote solar heat gain. Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specially engineered paint that’s designed to bond permanently with glass surfaces. It offers exceptional UV protection and will not chip, fade or peel, even in direct sunlight. It can be used in both residential and commercial applications, and it is suitable for interior or exterior use.

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

Photo Credit: DGriebeling, via Flickr.com

Metallic glass gears could be headed to space

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Metallic glass gears could be headed to space

Metallic glass gears could be headed to space

Aerospace engineers are looking at metallic glass as a potential material for gearing systems used in space. The material, which is made by melting metal, then cooling it rapidly, may prove to be useful in space vehicles, remote controlled equipment and robots.

Metallic glass is a manmade substance that relies on rapid cooling – on the order of 1,800 degrees Celsius per second – of metal to prevent the material from crystallizing at the atomic level. Ordinarily, solids have a crystalline structure, which is rigid and ordered. Glass, on the other hand, cools in such a way to prevent molecular crystallization. Instead, the material hardens without crystallizing. The molecules that make up glass order themselves randomly. In their liquid states, metallic glasses can be molded and shaped easily, the same way that glass can be blown or shaped.

Using metallic glass is interesting to scientists because the material retains the strength of metal, but can operate at extremely low temperatures and without the need for lubrication. The ability to work without lubrication is key. On Earth, lubrication is necessary to reduce friction and wear, but it will freeze and become ineffective at low temperatures. In space, power – which can be hard to come by – must be diverted from a device to heaters designed to keep the lubricants flowing. Preliminary testing showed that metallic glass could operate effectively at temperatures below minus 300° F without the need for lubricants.

Metallic glass also sidesteps another important problem: brittleness. At extremely low temperatures, metals tend to become brittle, which makes them vulnerable to breakage. Metallic glasses are not brittle at low temperatures, so gear teeth are less likely to be damaged in hostile environments.

Metallic glass also lends itself to mass production and rapid production techniques. Metallic glass can be blow molded or injection molded. Both of these techniques can rapidly produce parts, which can reduce the overall cost of making space vehicles. They can also lower costs for non-aerospace applications that can take advantage of metallic glass.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Alex Saunders, via Flickr.com

Ben Franklin’s Glass Armonica

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Ben Franklin's Glass Armonica

Ben Franklin’s Glass Armonica

Never heard of the glass armonica? And no, that’s not a typo. The glass armonica (also known as the glass harmonica, the glass harmonium and the bowl organ) was invented by none other than Benjamin Franklin, and he considered it his finest invention. What is the glass armonica and what made it so unique?

The glass armonica is a series of 37 spinning, color-coded glass bowls that create sound when friction is applied. The glass bowls are precisely sized, and vibrate to create sounds. The bowls spin by means of a foot-operated treadle, much like a spinning wheel. The glass armonica creates a wider range of tones than a set of filled glasses could, and it eliminated the need for standing liquid – and its obvious disadvantages!

Frankin’s design also allowed the musician to play as many as 10 notes at one time. Using liquid filled glasses, playing multiple notes at one time wasn’t possible. By allowing the musician to play multiple notes, the glass armonica could create a much richer musical experience for the listener.

The glass armonica was born of Franklin’s love of music, and the armonica was the first musical instrument invented by an American. The principle of the armonica is simple. It’s based off of the fact that glasses filled with varying amounts of fluid (usually water) can be made to resonate at different frequencies.

Mid-18th century Europeans enjoyed concerts performed by musicians who used glassware to create sounds. As part of Franklin’s diplomatic duties, he was sent to London in the late 1750’s to attempt to persuade the British government to grant some form of self-governance to the colonies, including Franklin’s home state of Pennsylvania.

Franklin attended a “glass” concert, and while he enjoyed the music, he thought that the delivery could be improved and the armonica was born. It was an instant hit in Europe. Major composers wrote music for it, and crowds loved it.

The glass armonica was popular for about 150 years, but fell out of popularity by about 1900. Very few glass armonicas exist today. The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia received one from the descendents of Ben Franklin, but it is rarely displayed. Another is owned by the Bakken Museum in Minneapolis. Neither instrument has its original glass bowls. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston also has an armonica from the 1800’s, which it sometimes makes available for public performances.

Mozart, Beethoven and Strauss, as well as dozens of other composers from the 18th and 19th centuries created works especially for the armonica, although most of the music for it has been lost to the ravages of time. In the 1980’s, the armonica enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, and a number of prominent contemporary artists have created new music for the instrument.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .
Photo Credit: Tonamel, via Flickr.com

New glass lens could revolutionize ultrasound

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New glass lens could revolutionize ultrasound

New glass lens could revolutionize ultrasound

Ultrasound waves are used extensively in medical treatment, diagnostics and materials research, but a new advancement in the field could extend the technology’s bag of tricks. Researchers at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have found a way to modify a glass “lens” to more precisely focus an ultrasound beam.

With better control over the ultrasound waves, doctors could use ultrasound to perform surgery, control devices and better understand the properties of materials. Current ultrasound devices can make only planar waves, which aren’t very precise. A new type of ultrasound, called “laser generated focused ultrasound” uses a modified glass lens to convert laser pulses to acoustic waves.

Laser pulses strike the glass lens, which is coated with a specialized carbon coating. The laser generates heat, which causes the carbon particles to expand quickly. The expanding carbon particles create high-frequency, high-pressure waves that can be focused and controlled.

The shape of the lens is important to the type of control it provides, and as it turns out, glass isn’t as flexible as some other materials. Researchers also used 3-D printers to create customized lenses that can focus an acoustic wave in multiple places simultaneously. The printed lenses cost about $2 each, and use common production materials.

The new ultrasound technique may also create advances in microfluidics and medical treatments that focus on cell-based therapies. Currently, ultrasound can be used to treat conditions like kidney stones and cancer, but more precise control could lead to more effective, less invasive treatments. The technique could also be used to perform cataract surgery, which currently uses lasers. Although laser therapy for cataract removal is safe, ultrasound destruction of cataracts could reduce complications and shorten recovery times.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Andrew Malone, via Flickr.com

What’s behind the glass flooring trend

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What's behind the glass flooring trend

What’s behind the glass flooring trend

Innovative interior design often makes use of glass for walls, doors and dividers, but some really unique designs incorporate glass flooring. Glass flooring – also known as structural glass – can be incorporated into walkways, staircases, bridges and floors. Glass flooring can allow an interior design to transmit a significant amount of natural light. Structural glass also includes glass stairways.

Typically, structural glass is laminated for strength and safety. It can either be clear or frosted, depending upon the application. Structural glass comes in squares that measure as much as 4 or 5 feet wide, and can be formed into panels or glass blocks. When installed, structural glass is supported by a steel or aluminum frame.

Glass flooring is often lit from below to create a dramatic visual effect. Clear flooring panels can give people standing on it an overhead view of processes or other activities. When a clear view is undesirable, translucent panels can still distribute natural light and provide a dramatic view when lit from below.

China has recently taken structural glass to new levels – literally. Glass bottomed bridges and viewing platforms suspended hundreds of feet above the ground give tourists unique views of natural parks, city skylines and other tourist attractions. China is not the only city in which tourists can take advantage of structural glass. Glass-floored tourist attractions can be found in London, Toronto, Moscow, Tokyo, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Anson Chappell, via Flickr.com

Taggers gravitate to glass wall

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Taggers gravitate to glass wall

Taggers gravitate to glass wall

In any major city, there are few places you can go and not see graffiti. Toronto is no different. Graffiti is pervasive, but certain areas seem to attract more attention than others. Toronto has a major mass transit system, which includes both subway trains and commuter trains that reach out to the outlying areas of the city.

With the city’s heavy reliance on trains, one constant issue is sound. Toronto attempts to control sound from its trains to whatever extent is possible. That involves constructing sound barriers that protect neighborhoods from the constant rumble of the trains.

One innovative sound barrier is made from glass. Glass is a better sound insulator than most materials, and it has the advantage of dampening sound without leaving a potentially unattractive wall that seals off a portion of a neighborhood.

Walls of any kind are typical targets of graffiti artists, and the glass wall is no different. Taggers almost immediately began painting the wall. The wall isn’t impervious to graffiti, but it does clean up easier than it would on a porous surface like cement or cinder block.

Ordinary paint will dry on glass, but it won’t stay put. That’s because ordinary paint is designed to work on porous surfaces. The paint soaks into the surface, which then retains the paint.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is designed to make a permanent bond with the glass surface. Once cured, it will not peel, chip or fade. It can also be tinted to match any color from any major paint manufacturer’s palette.

We don’t recommend using Glassprimer™ glass paint to create graffiti, but it can be used to paint and decorate homes and commercial spaces, for both interior and exterior projects. If you’d like more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Jose Carlos Casimiro, via Flickr.com

Direct doping glass may lead to new materials

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Direct doping glass may lead to new materials

Direct doping glass may lead to new materials

If your casual discussions with friends don’t revolve around upconversion nanocrystals, you’re probably in good company. Very good company. What are upconversion nanocrystals, and what to they have to do with glass?

Infrared light has longer wavelengths than visible light. If we could see it, we would find it beyond the red edge of visible light. About half of the Sun’s energy that reaches the Earth is infrared. Molecules absorb and emit infrared energy, which makes IR energy useful for sensors and detectors. Infrared energy is used in night vision equipment, astronomy and to control equipment.

Generally speaking, lightwaves are what they are. Ultraviolet and infrared light are transmitted from the Sun as part of the “full-spectrum” but our eyes can’t see them directly. They are invisible frequencies, although we can see (and feel) their effects.

So, enter upconversion nanocrystals, which have the ability to “convert” invisible IR light to visible light. Lanthanide-doped nanoparticles have been around since the 1990’s and they (along with a select few other elements) turn out to be reasonably good at converting IR wavelengths into visible light.

This conversion is important because it can enable new sensing techniques. The trouble is that the particles need to be suspended precisely in order to be useful. Glass and ceramics are great media for suspending things, but if you know anything about the way glass operates at the molecular level, you know that it’s kind of random. So far, glass and ceramics have proven to be both enticing and problematic when it comes to integrating upconversion nanocrystals.

Earlier this summer, Australian researchers announced that they have developed a technique to introduce upconversion nanocrystals into glass in such a way that overcomes the challenges they encountered when using ceramics and other types of glass. The development could lead to new advances tumor detection and other biomedical applications, remote radiation sensing and 3-dimensional displays.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store.

Photo Credit: David Merrigan, via Flickr.com

Did Portland glass factory pollute groundwater?

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Did Portland glass factory pollute groundwater?

Did Portland glass factory pollute groundwater?

Oregon state environmental regulators aren’t done looking at Bullseye Glass, the Portland glass factory at the center of an air quality issue in that city. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality now says that rainwater runoff from the factory’s roof may have deposited toxic heavy metals into the soil and groundwater near the furnace.

Investigators sampled the contents of dry wells on the company’s property and found some contaminants in concentrations as much as 33 times as high as federal limits for drinking water. While the runoff is not used for drinking, it does eventually filter into the groundwater, which may be used for drinking. Regulators are sampling the groundwater around the facility to test for the presence of heavy metals.

The roof runoff has been directed into the company’s dry wells for years, leading to the possibility of substantial contamination of the soil around the glass furnace. In addition to the toxic runoff, regulators also found about two feet of highly contaminated sediment at the bottom of the dry wells. Some of the concentrations of contaminants in the sediment were found to be thousands of times higher than the maximum allowable federal standards.

According to test results, the sediment in the dry well contained excessive levels of cadmium, lead, arsenic, hexavalent chromium and selenium. The dry well has been capped for some time, however the sediment in the well accumulated there over a period of more than 20 years. Bullseye Glass built the dry well in question in 1992, during an expansion of the company’s facilities.

The investigation was spurred by complaints that the glass furnace was improperly disposing of unwanted materials. Investigators found glass from the factory in manholes adjacent to the company’s property. The company was fined $600 and warned not to deposit any impermissible items in the city sewers. As part of the investigation, the city also looked at how materials, including rainwater runoff, are disposed of.

The company was also cited for faulty equipment cleaning practices that caused powdered glass fragments to be deposited on the company’s roof. Glass crushers were routinely cleaned out with compressed air, and the pulverized glass particles from the crushers was exhausted to the roof. The pulverized glass particles were then dispersed into the air, and washed off the roof into the sediment layer of the company’s dry wells.

Pending the outcome of the investigation, it is likely that Bullseye Glass will be required to develop a treatment plan for rainwater runoff that addresses the collection of heavy metals. The findings are significant because it is at least somewhat likely that other glass furnaces have contaminated soil around their facilities by improperly treating or discharging rainwater.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store.

Photo Credit: Pearl Pirie, via Flickr.com

China’s fascination with glass may have gone too far

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china-glass-bathrooms-300x225

China has been the site of many recent, high-profile glass attractions – bridges, walkouts, observation platforms and the like. The goal of these attractions are usually entertainment, but China may have taken its love affair with glass just one step too far.

Tourists at Shiyan Lake in the country’s Hunan Province can take full advantage of the park’s public restrooms, which are made entirely of glass, but at least on the facilities’ first day in action, most visitors chose not to.

The bathrooms are perched above the area’s spectacular forests, and feature glass-walled stalls and glass floors. The glass walls and stall doors are not heavily frosted, so it’s possible for other park visitors to see inside each cubicle, and there’s not much visual separation between the men’s and women’s restrooms. The floors in the treetop lavs are made from clear glass.

Most tourists have expressed a great deal of reservation about using the all-glass lavatories, and the concept gives new meaning to the French phrase, “natural break.” Nonetheless, some brave visitors have made good use of the treetop potties, while others have said that their need to go outweighed their need for privacy.

If you’re considering a frosted glass project, you might consider an alternative that produces similar results. Glassprimer™ glass paint offers a frosted finish on its paint that creates a frosted effect without the cost associated with frosted glass. And unlike frosted glass, which is created using a chemical or mechanical abrading process, Glassprimer™ glass paint comes in virtually any color. You don’t need to settle for traditional white, although virtually any shade of white is available!

Glassprimer™ glass paint provides excellent coverage for about $1 per square foot, which is less expensive than traditional frosted glass. In addition, Glassprimer™ glass paint bonds permanently with glass surfaces, so it won’t chip, fade or peel, even in direct sunlight.

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

Photo Credit: South China Morning Post