Glass Bottles are produced, filled and sold.

The average consumer discards over 700
disposable beverage containers per year.

Many communities have recycling operations to
recover glass.

Dirty glass, mixed with paper, plastic and metal,
can be quickly crushed and separate. Through
a new process, the glass can also be cleaned
and sized for use as a blasting abrasive.

Producing crushed glass abrasives requires
little energy and water.

Crushed glass offers superior performance and
is extremely economical. The material is also
safe to use as it contains no heavy metals
and no free crystalline silica.

Glass Bottles are produced, filled and sold.

The average consumer discards over 700
disposable beverage containers per year.

Most glass bottles are thrown in the trash.

Glass that is mixed with other waste heads
to the landfill or incinerator.

Glass recovered in recycling programs
often is sent to landfills because uses for
recovered glass cannot be found.

Glass in a landfill will never biodegrade, and will
not breakdown into sand for thousands of year.

Many communities "stockpile" recovered glass.
Cities such as Cheyenne dump recovered
glass in huge mountain at the city landfill
waiting for a way to use the glass
(http://www.kxan.com/dpp/living_green/
national_green/green_ap_cheyanne_recycled_
glass_ends_up_in_landfill_20090928_2911239).

 

Each year in the US, there are fewer and
fewer landfills in operation. From 1978 to 2005,
more than 90% of the landfills nationwide
have closed.

Life Cycle of Glass

 

In 2008, 12.15 Million Tons of Glass were produced in the United State. A large percentage of this went into glass bottles.

 

In 2006, the United States produced over 38 Billion glass bottles.

 

Approximately 80% of the glass bottles produced are used as disposable containers for beer. Roughly 12% of bottles are used for wine and spirits. The remainder was used for other products such as fruit juice and tea.

 

The use of glass bottles and packaging in general is typically an afterthought for consumers. The average consumer uses over 700 disposable beverage containers per year.

 

In 2008, 2.81 Million Tons of Glass were recovered in recycling programs. The represents less than 30% of the Glass produced. The vast majority of glass bottles are discarded with the trash.

 

When glass is mixed with trash, it is trucked to landfills and buried. Between 8 and 10 million tons of glass are discarded each year.

 

Glass that makes into a recycling program can be easily processed into new products. Glass that is sorted by color can be melted down to make new bottles. Unfortunately, sorting by color is a labor intensive and costly process. Many communities have found the cost of recycling glass to be too high. They still operate recycling programs that recover glass, but take the dumpsters of glass bottles to landfills. Even worse, some communities such as Huntsville, AL, send recovered glass to an incinerator and then a landfill (http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/05/
huntsville_residents_your_recy.html).

 

Our ability to discard trash and bury it in landfills continues to become more difficult. Each year, more and more landfills reach capacity and are closed. Despite this, few new landfills are opened as few communities want a landfill in their backyard. The statistics are staggering.

Landfills in Operation in the US:

1978: 20,000

1988: 5,499

1998: 3,091

2005: 1,654

 

The Future will require alternatives and solutions. It will become impossible to continue to bury everything we produce.

 

A New Density for Glass

Glass with mixed colors can be pulverized to make abrasive media and other products. Pulverizing the glass is a very efficient process only requiring a supply of glass from discarded bottles. What has been missing, up until now, is an efficient process for separating glass from other waste and cleaning the glass quickly, efficiently and thoroughly so it can be used in sand blasting applications. This technology now exists, and crushed glass can be produced in very large volumes.

 

Converting discarded glass bottles into new products will help divert millions of tons of waste from our landfills every year.

 

One of the most promising applications for scrap glass is as an abrasive blasting media. In this application, the color of the glass is unimportant, allowing the processing of mixed glass. This drastically reduces the cost and energy required to process the scrap glass into a usable product.

 

SunBlast pulverized glass is an effective abrasive blasting media, proven to be effective in a wide range of abrasive blasting applications.

 

SunBlast offers a safer option over traditional abrasive media. Many abrasives used today contain hazardous materials, such as crystalline silica and heavy metals. SunBlast is made from recycled glass beverage bottles - the same bottles we use every day to carry our soda, beer, wine, tea, juice and other beverages.

 

SunBlast contains no free crystalline silica and no heavy metals. The glass we use to make SunBlast was used as a beverage container before it was converted. The only difference between the "food safe" bottles and the SunBlast Abrasive is the glass is pulverized into small particles to create the abrasive media.

 

The result is a material that diverts waste from landfills and reuses the waste in an application where the glass is safer than traditional materials.

 

Up to now, the obstacle to widespread adoption of crushed glass as a blasting media has been limited due to limited supply of the product. IGS is the distribution partner for a network of manufacturing facilities ready to supply crushed glass blasting media in quantities far higher than has ever been available in the past.

 

Contact IGS today to learn more about Crushed Glass Abrasives