July 18, 2023 • 37 mins
Did you know glass won't break down for a million years? And we haven't even had glass for that long? Find out the #science in this week's look at glass recycling.
Sources:
- Glass Alliance Europe: What is Glass?
- Momentum Recycling: How is Glass Recycled?
- Glass Packing Institute: Glass Container Recycling Loop
- Chemical & Engineering News (C&En): Why glass recycling in the US is broken
- Eco Promotional Materials: Benefits of Recycling Glass
- Roadrunner Smarter Recycling: The Decomposition Clock
- Recycling Center Near Me: Glass Recycling
- Recycling Coach: Is broken glass recyclable
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Well, hey, Tiffany.
Boy Hey cat.
Are you doing this evening?
I'm doing pretty well. How areyou?
Pretty good. It's 100. And seewe've reached the 100 degree
weather in Austin is supposed tobe 105 this weekend.
Oh, my Lord. Yeah.
So typical. It's a little earlyfor that. We had a pretty cool
spring. So we're just kind ofthrust into this. But yet, it's
(00:30):
usually later. Like, July beforewe get this hot, but yeah, it
is. I mean, it was I think itwas pretty hot last May. So.
Okay. Yeah. Well, this comes outin July, but we're recording.
Yeah,we're recording it in June,
June. So like mid June. Yeah,that's like that's pretty hot.
(00:51):
It's been.
We had like one hot day here sofar. That's it. Oh, lucky. But
like zero rain. Soare you getting it? Yeah, that
stinks. Are you getting awildfire smoke or is that not?
We did? Yeah. It's funny,because by the time this gets,
this comes out, it will be likewildfire. Smoke. That
was so long ago. Yeah. Well, I'mjust saying because it's all
(01:11):
part of the big, you know, partof climate change
sign. No. And it was kind ofinteresting, because it's like,
I don't know if it was a wake upcall. But
it will you because like NewYorkers have never seen that.
It's only been California andseconds and minutes. Like, oh,
no, it's in your backyard.
Yeah. And the fact that it wentall the way down to like, yeah,
(01:32):
I don't even know how far southit went. But really good
stuff. Probably drifting some. Imean, it's dissipated. But yeah,
my sister had it in Cleveland,Ohio. Wow. So gnarly stuff.
Welcome to green and got my act,where we talking about gnarly
stuff, gnarly stuff, and try tomake
it entertaining. Yeah, one ofthe reasons though, that we
(01:53):
believe in sustainability is Imean, ultimately, it's up to
governments and corporations whohave all the power to make these
changes, but we're the ones whohave to live with it. And we can
do our individual parts to makeit less profitable for these
companies to Yep, to keepproducing trash, basically. And
(02:16):
then using greenhouse gases tofuel their enterprises. So it's,
it all feeds, it's all part of agiant green ecosystem.
It is. And we also like to callout what we call green Hui,
because there's a lot of itgreenwashed products and systems
and yeah, and, yeah, thisseason, we're talking about
(02:38):
waste, and all that that entailsnow. Because there's, you could
have a whole podcast aboutwaste, but we're kind of hitting
the high notes, yellow notes, Iguess, yellow, I guess? Well, I
mean, there's some of them arekind of high. I think there's
some hope.
There is surprise. It's beensurprising.
Tint, we usually talk aboutproducts. But this is we're
talking about systems, thisthis, the four horsemen of the
(03:01):
recycle apocalypse. And I alsofound a new term while I was
researching this week's episode,which is about glass recycling.
So I want everyone to get thisdown wish cycling. Oh, so wish
cycling is that kind of blindtrust we put in our recycling
systems where we just throwanything into the recycling bin?
(03:23):
Oh my gosh. So wish cycling iswhen you throw that really
greasy piece of lasagna toppingaluminum in or mirrors, for
instance, can be recycled. Sowrite anything you need to look,
you need to educate yourselfbefore you just throw things in
your recycling bin becauseultimately, it wrecks the rest
(03:44):
of the recycling for you tothrow in plastic bags or you
know, paper cups with a plastictarp. You know, so, I wish
cycling is when we just kind ofblindly throw things and hope
that they're recyclable. So Igotcha cool term.
Okay, so I'm not gonna namenames, but I know somebody who
they did their research and theylooked up how to recycle a
(04:07):
motorcycle helmet.
Wow.
And this is actually a thinglike they found that like, yeah,
you can do that. But then theyput it in the bin like curbside
know that people begin torecycling open the bin and just
throw it in the yard. Like goodart because they're like, this
is not this is not where he putthis. But you know, it's
(04:30):
confusing because it's it isthat's it's recyclable, but it's
just it's different curbs versuswhat, like at my recycling
center, you can take things likelaundry baskets, I just found
out oh, wow research. You cantake like kind of heavy duty
plastics, but you have to takethem to the place. You can't
just put them in your curbside.
Yeah,I think and that's something I
mean, I know the city of Austinhas been sending out recyclable
(04:52):
pamphlets on what can go in therecycling bin and I recently
just recently I stopped puttinga plastic bag liner in my
recycling in you know, my my bininside the house and taking it
out to my outside bin. So nowwe're just dumping straight from
our little recycling trashcan inthe house, to the recycling bin
(05:13):
without the plastic.
Oh, so you were doing a plasticbag? I think a lot of people do
that becausethey sell those clear plastic
ones that are supposed to be forrecycling. Yes. And they're not.
It's so true.
It depends if you're if youdon't have a recycling bin, and
you're just putting it on thecurb. They may ask for the clear
(05:34):
bag because it makes it easierto sort or whatever. Gotcha. In
my jurisdiction. They don't wantplastic bags. Uh, you know, that
includes your little shoppingbags your little.
Yeah, we'll get into that nextweek when I talk about plastic.
So wish cycling that I love it.
Yeah. So accurate. And I do itall the time. I mean, don't we?
(05:54):
Oh, yeah, I probably not afterdoing this podcast. I'll
probably be better about it. Butlet's dive in. So this week is
our third horsemen of therecycled pocalypse which again,
it ends up is kind of a MyLittle Pony spoiler alert.
Oh my goodness. I'm so happy.
Yes, thatjust gives you some hope. But so
let's get into my sources forthis week. I started with glass
Alliance Europe, they had anarticle about what what is glass
(06:17):
and I for the record, they'repromoters of glass. So to take
everything there with a littlegrain of salt, right? Momentum
recycling talked about how glassis recycled. I believe they're
out of Utah. So that's kind ofthe process as it is in Utah but
it was a general overview. Thenwe have the glass packing
Institute glass containerrecycling loop. Then this was a
fun one chemical and EngineeringNews. They go by sea and in. So
(06:41):
see ya CNN. Oh, cute, cute,cute. But why glass recycling in
the US is broken, superinformative article, highly
recommend reading it. Ooh. Andthen eco promotional materials
had the benefits of recyclingglass. Road Runners smarter
recycling had the deepcomposition clock which had some
great info on how everythingdecomposes over time. And, and
(07:05):
then a resource that we shouldpost is recycling center near
me. This was their glassrecycling post, but they have a
locator for wherever you live tofind aggress glass recycling or
other recycling options near youif you don't have curbside. Oh,
wow. Very cool. Yeah. Let'sstart with what is glass and
again, I relied on the glassAlliance Europe for this one,
(07:28):
but I'll just quote directlyfrom them. Glass is a solid like
and transparent material that isused in numerous applications in
our daily lives. Duff.
It is hard, like I said lasttime about paper paper is thin.
Yes.
Glass is hard. Yes. It's hardand clear generally. But okay,
it's what it's made from ismostly natural materials. So
(07:52):
sand, soda, ash, and limestoneare the three main ingredients.
Also, glass calling, which we'regoing to do that's recycled
materials. And then they're allmelted down at a super high
temperature to create glass.
Glass is structurally similar toliquids when it's hot. Okay, but
at room temperature, it behaveslike a solid so some people will
(08:14):
tell you that glass is a liquid.
But I mean, it's moving soslowly for us that we can't
perceive it I guess. Wow. Butbecause if you heat it up high
enough, it turns into a liquidbasically it can be poured,
blown, pressed and molded intowhatever shape you want.
Basically. Nice, yes. So it'shighly usable substance.
(08:39):
Originally, glass was producedin Egypt and Mesopotamia as all
good things are about 3500before the common era a long
time ago when they first becausethey didn't have industrial
processes. Obviously, they madeit for smaller things like
jewelry, but then they startedusing it for vessels for liquids
and things.
Did it start okay? Please it ofme didn't know heart with
(09:01):
lightning strikes. I alwaysthink of that dumb movie with
Reese Witherspoon about Oh,Sweet Home Alabama. Oh, okay.
Yeah, it's like her loveinterest, whose name I forget is
a glassblower and he makes thesebecause when the lightning
strikes this sounds like a wholething. Yeah. Turns into
(09:23):
you know, I didn't get that deepinto the history that's that's
possible. I mean, that's there'swhole sections of it. You should
look this up but the Trinitysite in New Mexico because the
sand there with the mica andwhatever was heated to such a
high temperature didn't makeglass Oh, wow. There's pieces I
believe. Someone Someone fromthe nuclear weapons community is
(09:46):
going to correct me on this I'msure. Right. Maybe someone we
know. But and, but but there'sdead Trinity glass. I mean, it's
extremely radioactive, but itexists. So anyway, yes, high
heat plus sand equal Glass.
Cool. Yeah. Obviously how it'smade, it has to be melted first,
you can do this either withthose three materials, sand,
(10:06):
soda, ash, and limestone. Or youcan make some of those raw
materials with glass calling,which is recycled glass. You mix
these elements together. Ishouldn't say elements because
they're not elements but theirmaterials together and put them
into a furnace at about 2700degrees Fahrenheit. That's
toasty. That'll melt your faceoff. Yeah. That's 50 100 degrees
(10:30):
Celsius for our two Europeanlisteners. Yeah, there you go. I
wonder if we could come up withanother image like 15 lightning
strikes. And he said that it hadto be said it in an American
accent because we'll useanything but the metric system.
Right. Right. Then, yeah, thenthe wall or so I guess. Yes.
Celsius. Isn't metric, is it?
(10:52):
Oh, lordy. Anyway, well, isn'tjust Celsius.
It's not, but it's used by allthe metric countries, right?
Yeah.
It's it makes the most sense.
It's based on the boiling pointof water and water. Nobody's
judging you. Okay. Well, yeah,they are. Sorry, to my rocket
scientist friends. Okay. Well,you know, maybe don't screw up
your friends. Anyway. Okay.
(11:14):
Well, then the molten mixturehas taken out to be cooled and
shaped. You've probably seenglass blowing. Yes. Okay. So you
can do you can add other thingsto the mixture to make it harder
or stronger or change the colorof the glass. So that would be
an applications like fiberglass,for instance. While that doesn't
make it harder or stronger, thatthey use glass particles to make
fiberglass. Okay. In the UnitedStates, there are 44 glass
(11:38):
manufacturing plants in 21.
States.
Oh, 44. That's it? Yeah. Whoa,that's yellow.
Yeah, it seems low. Right. Andthen there are 63 glass
benefiting facilities. So placesthat process glass, or glass
products in 30 states? Well,that's also low. Yeah, something
(11:58):
to keep in mind. And you gottaassume the distance between them
is pretty great. Right? Sothat's something to keep in mind
when you think about glassrecycling. Yeah. So according to
momentum recycling, the step bystep process for recycling glass
is number one, it's collectedand delivered to the facilities
where it will be processed. Thenit's sorted. And there are
specifically sorting facilitiesthat do this. They get rid of
(12:22):
the contaminants of the wishcycling materials like ceramics
or your Pyrex bowls, yourlightbulbs, your mirrors, those
things can't go in glassrecycling, ladies and gentlemen,
you know, light bulbs. Yeah,not, that's not good.
No. And then they separate Brownfrom non brown glass, because I
guess you can't make clear glassout of brown glass,
(12:44):
if that makes sense. Make clear.
Yeah, that would make sense.
Can't get the color out?
Yeah. Okay, from there afterit's sorted, usually, by
individuals by hand. It's brokendown by this machine that has 24
Industrial hammers the size ofyour forearm, that just kind of
mashes the glass up, okay. Intocrude particles, this can create
(13:07):
like a glass dust, and so theyuse a water mist to control the
particulate matter.
Oh, keep it down. glass dustsounds unsafe. Yeah,
yeah. Is that something you wantto inhale. Then it goes through
a trommel, which is a revolvingscreen that sorts it into pieces
that are three eighths of aninch and three fourths of an
inch. That also at the sametime, detaches, labels, corks,
(13:30):
caps and lids, which go off totheir own, hopefully recycling
bins, butbecause I always wonder
sometimes I put wine bottleswith their corks in them in my
bin, and I'm like, I don't knowhow to do this.
I would take it out. At the endof this episode, you'll probably
want to clean glass as much asyou can, but I would take it
out. And then it goes throughanother process of fluidized bed
(13:53):
driver that heats the airunderneath it to 109 degrees. I
said it was kind of like an airhockey table where it kind of
lifts the stuff up and heats theair under it. Interesting. Then
it burns off label glue, and anysugars or bacteria. Okay, and
then the residue floats becausethe residue is lighter than the
(14:14):
glass, it floats up and issucked away by vacuum, which
sounds very New Age space age tome. But yeah, and then next step
is it passes through a primaryrotary screen, which calls out
specific sizes. And so they setthe screens that kind of sift
the glass particles intospecific sizes based on who
(14:35):
their buyer is going to bebecause different glass
manufacturing processes usedifferent size of this. What's
Whoa, glass calling.
Okay, that sounds just allsounds so sophisticated.
Yeah, it is. It's very hightech. So fiberglass
manufacturers, for instance,need their particles to be,
(14:56):
quote unquote 12 mesh which islike the smallest mesh house
smaller right? bottles and otherglass need larger sizes or can
use larger sizes to melt down,etc. Then the next step is
anything that doesn't make itthrough the primary screen there
gets sent to the pulverizer.
Again, it's another 36 hammersthat aggressively reduced
particle size, if what I readthat to mean was Smash. Yeah,
(15:18):
I'm thinking of like Hulk Smash.
Yeah, the Hulk Smash, but it's36 industrial sized hammers. And
then that material goes backthrough the primary screen to be
sorted again. Okay, that is aprocess that continues until
everything goes through, thenyou have a secondary rotary
screen size classifier to sortthem into four sizes for the
(15:40):
different end markets. So it'ssorted again.
So this is after all the colorshave been sorted through so they
do this for every color.
I think so that I didn't thatmight be very over the overly
complicated. I'm just yeah, itjust sounds like so much.
There's just too much involved.
Yeah, well, but it's a lot ofit's automated, I mean,
obviously, okay, and I've beenwrong, it's not glass calling,
(16:01):
it's glass cullet. So those arethe glass pieces that end up and
they can be the everything theyrange from the size of pebbles
to sand to even powder which canbe used for different reasons.
And then it's sold to end usersfor different production
purposes and momentum recyclinglisted new glass containers, so
that'd be bottles, jars, etc.
Okay, and then fiberglass youcan use this kind of sand or the
(16:25):
powder for our abrasives likesandblast for your sandblasters
okay, they also use it as abinder in ceramics and bricks.
So that would be like thepowder. You can use it as a
filler and paints and plastics.
Really, yep. You can use it in acertain type of material which I
didn't write down but it's it'san alternative for natural clays
(16:48):
or fly ash. Okay, it's also usedas a filtration medium for water
usually like swimming pools, butsometimes municipal water
sources use it to Okay, and thena friction ater in matches in
and ammunition which is probablymy favorite word that feels made
up.
Like that causesthe friction. Yeah, it matches
the friction ater. So that's onyour backpack, you know, the
(17:11):
friction there. And then you canuse it as an additive in flux
and flux and metal foundry too.
So those are the basics. Okay,that's a lot. It's a lot in
terms of recycling rates.
According to the glass packagingInstitute in 2018 39.6% of beer
and soft drink bottles wererecovered for recycling. That's
according to the EPA 39.8% ofwine and liquor bottles and 15%
(17:35):
of food and other glass jars. Soin total 33.1% of all glass food
and beverage containers wererecycled in America in 2018.
That's pretty low at super low.
super low.
So what was the food andbeverage I'm trying to think
what comes in glass? It's like aregular food and beverage or the
(17:55):
Lhasa? Oh,any you know any jams, jellies,
right? Okay.
The container and fiberglassindustries collectively
purchased 3.3 5 million tons ofrecycled glass, which is
remelted and repurposed for usein the production of new
containers and fiber fiberglassproducts. So they like it. Yeah,
so we're gonna start with thenegative, why wouldn't you
(18:17):
recycle glass? Number one, wehave to say this with every
process. As a person who'sdevoted to green living, there's
the obvious reason. Recyclingglass is a process that uses
energy and water resources. Soif you're trying to reduce your
individual footprint, you'drather reuse a glass jar, than
have it recycled to make moreglass jars. And we're doing a
(18:38):
mini episode on that. Yes. AndI'm very excited. Yeah. Okay.
Now also, according to theRoadrunner, smarter recycling
decomposition clock. Glass takesa million years to decompose.
Well, yeah, I mean, it usuallygets broken up. Obviously, if
(18:59):
you've ever dropped somethinglike a glass bottle on the
street, you know that it'sbreakable. So usually, but
generally, like if you justthrow it in the landfill, and it
didn't break a million years.
Whoa. But eventually it wouldactually just from pressure.
Yeah, again, anything pluspressure equals biodegrade. Wow.
(19:21):
That's insane. I love how that'slike. It's just math. Obviously,
wehaven't been making glass for a
million years, right? We haven'teven done that. There's not a
single piece of glass that isdecomposed on this planet. Well,
that we know. Okay, but the realreason that you would not
recycle glass is because on acultural level, the United
States is just bad at it. Sothis is where the article from
(19:45):
CNN comes in, and I'm just goingto quote directly from them.
There are many reasons why moreglass isn't recycled in the US,
says David Rhew, an engineer atthe gas Technology Institute
near Chicago who recentlycompleted a year long study of
us glassware recycling as aconsultant, the US glass
recycling shortfall comes downto the interplay between the
quality and availability ofcullet. So that's the glass
(20:07):
particles and the economics ofmaking glass, he says, and he
says the recycling ratediscrepancies between the US and
other countries result mainlyfrom differences in government
policy and consumer educationand habits. So he says, by
understanding these hurdles, theglass recycling, industry groups
hope to boost the rate in theUS. Just to brag it up about our
(20:27):
European counterparts. Most ofthem on average, recycle glass
at a rate of 90%.
Whoa. That's not supersurprising, I guess.
I know. I mean, they're good atbut the big three, okay, so the
big reason is, they talk aboutthe difference between single
stream recycling and multistream recycling. Okay. Yeah. So
(20:50):
single stream recycling is justcurbside pickup at individual
residences. That's what Americagenerally does. Yeah. So we just
throw it in all together. And alot of wish cycling goes into
it. Yeah, like motorcyclehelmets. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. So
multistream recycling simplifiesthe process for the processors
(21:11):
to do their work because italready separates glass from
other materials like aluminumand paper. Uh huh. So that's
already cuts down economicallyin the process for the
processors.
It's like in the Netherlands.
Yep.
They have. And they may evenhave separate, you know, glass,
like clear glass goes here.
Thankfully, did actually glassgoes here. Yeah. So that makes
(21:32):
it if individuals put the effortin to do that, it makes it
cheaper for the processors, youknow, because they don't have to
spend as much money sortingsomething kind of interesting.
You know, I grew up in Indiana,and we never had curbside. Oh,
wow. Yeah, really barely hadcurbside trash. You have to pay
like 10 bucks for it orsomething. Anyway, never had
(21:53):
curbside recycling. But you tookyour stuff to the recycling
center. And you had to sort ityourself. Yeah, I think
we had some of that inAlbuquerque, too. We had, they
didn't have curbside glassrecycling. And so you had to
take the glass yourself to adrop off point. Right. The other
(22:14):
thing about that multistreamprocess? Is that usually the
glass that goes there is a lotcleaner than other glass
already. Is it? Yeah. Becauseyou're not going to take it in
your car, if it's just leakinggunk. Okay? I mean, that's part
of it. So it can bypass thosematerials, recovery facilities
and go straight to theprocessors. Oh, the problem is
(22:37):
that you have to be educated andwilling to do this initial step,
right. Also, on a municipal andlocal level is cheaper for
cities to implement singlestream than multi stream
interesting. Then another factorthat goes into it, the distances
in the US, between all thefacilities that are part of this
process is way further than itis in Europe. So to transport
(23:02):
the collected glass to thesorting facility, and then from
there to the processingfacility, that'll make, you
know, the glass cullet thattakes a lot Hulk smash it up.
Yeah, a lot more fossil fuel,and then to get it to the
processing plants that createglass is even more, you know,
(23:22):
time resources and money, andfossil fuels and, you know,
transportation and all thosethings. So, the US is just too
big, and the processes are toospread out. Okay. or, excuse me,
the processing facilities aretoo spread out for it to be as
simple as it is in Europe.
Yeah, it makes it I mean, yeah,because European countries are
like the size of Massachusetts.
Yeah.
(23:43):
So, ya know, and at the sametime, glass cullet quality, and
type can change how it is used.
So, the cullet made from bottlesand jars is incompatible with
window glass or fiberglasscomponents. So color producers
have to have extra processes inplace to separate these things
(24:04):
out, right. So that means theburden is on them. So it's not
necessarily a great money makingventure for them. So all those
things add up and make glassrecycling in the US. Kind of a
monster. But you should recycleglass and here's why. Okay, a
color according to the glasspackaging Institute. Glass is
(24:27):
100% recyclable without losingquality or purity. Like
aluminum. You can do itinfinitely.
Oh my god. Yeah, that is soexciting.
Yep. recycled glass cansubstitute up to 95% of the raw
materials. So that cuts down onneeding to get sand and
(24:49):
limestone Wow. Or soda ash,which I guess you can harvest
sand. I mean, we seem to have aninfinite amount of sand but I'm
sure there are better types ofsand and you know,
yeah, Uh, although Aren't mostof our beaches like manmade?
A lot of them? Yeah, they'reusually reclaimed land. Yeah.
But yeah, I guess you can makesand from a lot of things. Yeah.
(25:10):
But the other thingis that I don't know why this is
the case, but a lot of placesquoted energy costs to make
recycled glass, or two to 3%.
Less for every 10% of color usedin the manufacturing process.
Oh, that's a lot of numbers.
I know. And then some anotherplace. I'm just gonna go through
(25:33):
all of my sources and say whatthey say because a lot of them
have different numbers in there.
But anywhere from 5% less per10% of call it used. I mean, two
to 3% seems to be standard, butokay. There's also an economic
reason. It creates jobs. Yeah,that's kind
of what I was thinking. Yeah.
Are these sorry, are theserecycling sent? The manufacturer
(25:53):
the processing facilities? Arethey like government run or
government funded? Are theyprivate? They're private.
I think they, the government maypay them to take this stuff. But
they're, they're privatelyowned. Interesting. Okay. Yeah.
So recycling 1000 tons of glass,according to The Container
Recycling Institute createsslightly over eight jobs in your
(26:14):
community. Interesting. Yeah.
And and states that have bottlebuyback bills, bottle bills,
beverage container depositsystems provide 11 to 38 times
more direct jobs than curbsiderecycling systems. Whoa, yeah.
And that's according to theContainer Recycling Institute
returning to work, understandingthe jobs impacts from different
methods of recycling beveragecontainers, which is a very
(26:35):
specific study that I'm veryinterested in. Boy. I love
these. Yeah, I know. They'relike the nerds that I mean, it's
a we're nerding out Yeah, andsuper, super helpful. Yeah. But
okay. According to our friends,CNN, see, and in, Americans
throw away 10 million metrictons of glass. And only half of
(26:55):
that gets recycled. Cardboard.
So thatthat's per year. Yeah. My god.
Yeah.
So using glass cullet reducesthe need for manufacturers to
use those raw materials silica,sodium carbonate, limestone.
Plus, you get 20% more glass outof recycled cullet per kilogram
(27:17):
than raw materials. And I don'tknow how they did that math. But
it was one for every you get 20%more glass mass can be created?
Yeah, I don't know. I think it'sjust based on time and process.
Interesting. Yeah. It lowers thecost of the final product,
(27:37):
obviously. And it improves thequality of it, because you can
control recycled glass call itbetter than sand melting call,
it doesn't release co2 or othergases trapped in the glass via
air bubbles. CNN said basically,for every six metric tons of
color, using manufacturingglassmakers can cut one metric
(27:57):
ton of co2 emissionsway so it stays trapped.
No, I think it there it isn't inthe air bubbles anyway. Okay. Or
the way that the process does?
It doesn't release it in theair. Yeah, all
this crap is so confusing. Iknow. But still, okay. So that's
like a net positive, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, so eco promotionalproducts also had more stats.
(28:20):
Are you ready? So it savesenergy. Recycling is less energy
sucking than creating new glass.
It consumes 40% less energy thanmaking new glass from raw
materials, right. And that meansreduced emissions of nitrogen
oxide and carbon dioxide. Theysay it reduces air pollution by
20%. Over making new glass niceand reduces water pollution by
(28:41):
50%. Whoa, are making new glassright? Obviously, it reduces
landfill. It takes as little as30 days for recycled glass
bottle to leave your recyclingbin and appear on a store shelf
has a new glass container. Thatis so cool, man as opposed to a
million years in a landfill.
Yeah, right. No minordifference. All right, again,
(29:01):
conserves natural resources.
every tonne of glass that isrecycled saves more than a ton
of raw materials that you wouldneed to create new glass.
Okay, so this is a really dumbquestion. But I'm just thinking
through maybe our listeners arenot really sure about this
either. But it's like, I don't Ijust haven't thought about this
before. But basically therecycling center that I take my
(29:23):
crap to or gets picked upcurbside, but I take some stuff
too. I go there, I throw it in abin and then nothing happens to
it there. Right. It just getssent to one of these processes
sortingfacility generally, unless
there's a sorting facility onsite. Yeah.
See, that's so interesting,because I always kind of just in
my, in my mind, assume thatstuff happened there.
It might I mean, it depends onthe facility. Okay.
(29:45):
I don't know. Yeah. I have noidea about but yeah, it's
like, you know, there'sdifferent players that are
involved for different amountsof money and
Okay, so interesting. All right.
Yeah.
I mean, at the end of the day,glass is just fucking better
than plus to. And again, it'swhy wouldn't you recycle it?
Like if you're not going toreuse it and we are going to do
(30:06):
an episode a mini episode on howto reuse glass jars and things?
Yes, the things that we'velearned over the years, yeah, if
you're notgoing to reuse it, don't throw
it away, recycle it. Now again,clean it you know, rinse it out,
I've we run our jars at thedishwasher before we put them in
the recycling bin. Usually,again, though, they can catch
(30:27):
the corks and the caps and the,you know, other parts, but clean
it as much as you can. If if youwant to be a super good person,
write to your representative andask them to implement better
recycling policies. curbside,again is cheaper for cities.
Americans don't like to pay forthings. We don't like to pay
(30:48):
taxes. And we don't like to we'dlike to wish cycle we'd like to
Yeah, we don't like to vote.
Yeah, we don't like to separateour aluminum from our paper from
our Yeah, goout of our way to take the time
for that stuff.
If you live in a place thatdoesn't have curbside glass
recycling, as my French teacherused to say it's worth the pain
(31:09):
to say it in French Savola. Ben,take it to your local center.
And if you have a you live in astate that has bottle buyback,
make some money off of it, getyour bottle bought back from
you. It is worth it. It doesmake an impact.
I think I looked that up. Idon't remember maybe I looked up
aluminum. But I looked up onebecause Indiana, my county at
(31:31):
least used to have that and theydon't anymore. Yeah, maybe it is
a statewide thing. Butyeah, it's cutting back on
taxpayer money has to come fromsomewhere. So I mean, I guess if
they sell the glass to certainplaces for sorting and whatnot,
they can make money back off ofit, but it's part of a state
budget. So yeah. Yeah, thatmakes sense. So that's glass
recycling in a nutshell, and mygranola rating. Uh huh. I gave
(31:55):
it a four out of five country. Ilove it similar to aluminum.
Again, the reason that it's notgetting a five out of five is
because Americans are lazy, andthe available systems for
recycling. hold us back. Andthat's not just because
Americans are lazy. It's becausewe don't have the political
system in place to prioritizethese kinds of things.
(32:20):
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say Imean, laziness is certainly part
of it. But it's also busynessand lack of clarity, I would say
and educate. I mean, we aren'tparticularly well educated on
recycling. Right. But yeah, Iwill never throw a glass
container in a trash can everagain.
Oh, it just feels like bad todo.
Yeah, I mean, even I hate to saythis, but even if it's broken
(32:43):
into a bunch of pieces, if youcan safely put it in your
recycling bin. It getsthat's really interesting.
Sometimes. I'm trying to thinkof what I've done is with
sometimes I put Oh, yeah, yeah,I had like a glass pane from a
picture frame. And I didn't wantthe people collecting it to get
cut. So I like put it in a paperbag. And I didn't know if that
(33:04):
was what was gonna happen. Thatwas definitely a wish cycling
thing. I don't know whathappened with it. It probably
got thrown in the landfill. Butthat's I have heard that before.
Because you kind of have to likethink about your recycle,
recycle folks. Like you can'tthrow in tin. When you open your
cans. You have the sharp, roundthing. Those are not recyclable
(33:26):
because they can really cutpeople. Yeah. So glass is the
same way. So I don't know whathappens if it's in a paper bag.
Butyeah, it looks like so broken
glass cannot be recycled. Andoh, really, they they ask that
you please wrap it in severallayers of newspaper or seal it
in a box and label the packageglass before putting it in your
trash cart.
(33:47):
Trash. Alright, so I think I gothalfway there.
Yeah. Yeah, that's a bummer,though. I wonder if it can be
recycled elsewhere?
I'd kind of doubt it. It'sprobably the same reason that
the what do you call those? Thelids? They're not lids. They're
the sharp tops of cans that youOh, yeah. The the tabs. Not even
(34:08):
the tabs. Me? Oh, like when youuse a can opener. You have this?
Like round top of the lid thatcomes apart? And that's like,
razors, basically. Yeah.
Anyways, it's probably the samereason because people can really
cut themselves. Yeah, I mean,okay, so
I'm going to have to show youhow to open a can so that you
don't have sharp edges.
Oh, please do I've actuallyokay, do I feel like I've seen
(34:30):
this online or something, youjust do it backwards or
something new, layit sideways. So you know how you
you know, see if vertically, youknow you normally put the
cutters on top of the canvertically, you lay it on its
side. So you're spinning aroundhorizontally. If you take video
of it the next time you open acan Yeah, do it doesn't leave a
(34:51):
rooftop.
Oh my gosh. That's awesome.
That's helpful. So maybe thatwould be recyclable that night.
didn't increase my aluminumrecycling. Oh yeah, for sure are
10 What is it again? Are theymade from tin
rhodium from aluminum? Well,those are 10. Yeah, tin tin cans
are different, but they're stillrecyclable. We aren't doing one
on them. I just found a blogcalled recycle coach that talks
(35:14):
about whether or not brokenglass is recyclable. They
basically come down to call yourlocal bottle accepting place. I
have interesting in our shownotes as well.
Well, the other thing that'sconfusing about that is it when
they pour my pour out bottlesfrom my curbside bin into the
truck, you know, breaks to shit.
So I know.
That's kind of interesting.
Yeah, who knows? All right.
(35:36):
There you go. So that's awesome.
That's nice. I feel better aboutit now than I did.
Me too. I feel better aboutwell, most recycling plastic was
like I cried myself to sleep.
But we'll get into that nextweek. Yeah,
so I guess we should talk aboutnext week. Our four horsemen of
the apocalypse is kind of turnedinto three My Little Ponies and
(35:58):
one horsemen. Soyeah, and it's definitely death.
It's definitelydead. So next week, we're doing
starting with plastic. Andbecause of the amount of
research we're going to do it intwo episodes. Yes, right. Yes.
It's gonna be a doo doo. Oh,parter. Yeah, it's not right. To
ordertwo parter. Yeah. So wow, I'm
(36:18):
concerned for my sleep afteryou.
Maybe should be, to be honest.
really disturbing. Yeah, it wasjust way too much. And I
couldn't do it. And when Ididn't, mostly I wanted to give
it the time it deserves becauseit really deserves some time.
It's complex. I mean, obviously,glass recycling systems are
(36:41):
there's, I think that article bysea, and in that I had, I think
everyone should read it just tokind of open your eyes as to
what, what is holding us back.
Right. And, you know, we can doour parts. But there's a lot of
policy that has to be made and alot of players that aren't
making money off of it. Sothey're not going to do anything
about it.
Right. And all of our all theselinks are in the show notes, so
(37:04):
you can just check them out.
Yeah, soWell, wow. Yeah, email us. Your
concerns about my take on howglass was first formed by
lightning and our nuclearfission. We're at greening up my
act@gmail.com.
Yeah, send us an email. If youhave any requests or curiosities
(37:26):
or questions,you can just do what our family
does and message us personally.
Thanks, Julia. Thanks. So mysister,
or Instagram my like to respondto this?
Oh, yeah. Tiffany does a greatjob on her Instagram. So kudos.
Awesome. All right. Well, wewill see you next week. And
thanks for listening.
(37:46):
Thank you.
Well, hey, Tiffany.
Boy Hey cat.
Are you doing this evening?
I'm doing pretty well. How areyou?
Pretty good. It's 100. And seewe've reached the 100 degree
weather in Austin is supposed tobe 105 this weekend.
Oh, my Lord. Yeah.
So typical. It's a little earlyfor that. We had a pretty cool
spring. So we're just kind ofthrust into this. But yet, it's
(00:30):
usually later. Like, July beforewe get this hot, but yeah, it
is. I mean, it was I think itwas pretty hot last May. So.
Okay. Yeah. Well, this comes outin July, but we're recording.
Yeah,we're recording it in June,
June. So like mid June. Yeah,that's like that's pretty hot.
(00:51):
It's been.
We had like one hot day here sofar. That's it. Oh, lucky. But
like zero rain. Soare you getting it? Yeah, that
stinks. Are you getting awildfire smoke or is that not?
We did? Yeah. It's funny,because by the time this gets,
this comes out, it will be likewildfire. Smoke. That
was so long ago. Yeah. Well, I'mjust saying because it's all
(01:11):
part of the big, you know, partof climate change
sign. No. And it was kind ofinteresting, because it's like,
I don't know if it was a wake upcall. But
it will you because like NewYorkers have never seen that.
It's only been California andseconds and minutes. Like, oh,
no, it's in your backyard.
Yeah. And the fact that it wentall the way down to like, yeah,
(01:32):
I don't even know how far southit went. But really good
stuff. Probably drifting some. Imean, it's dissipated. But yeah,
my sister had it in Cleveland,Ohio. Wow. So gnarly stuff.
Welcome to green and got my act,where we talking about gnarly
stuff, gnarly stuff, and try tomake
it entertaining. Yeah, one ofthe reasons though, that we
(01:53):
believe in sustainability is Imean, ultimately, it's up to
governments and corporations whohave all the power to make these
changes, but we're the ones whohave to live with it. And we can
do our individual parts to makeit less profitable for these
companies to Yep, to keepproducing trash, basically. And
(02:16):
then using greenhouse gases tofuel their enterprises. So it's,
it all feeds, it's all part of agiant green ecosystem.
It is. And we also like to callout what we call green Hui,
because there's a lot of itgreenwashed products and systems
and yeah, and, yeah, thisseason, we're talking about
(02:38):
waste, and all that that entailsnow. Because there's, you could
have a whole podcast aboutwaste, but we're kind of hitting
the high notes, yellow notes, Iguess, yellow, I guess? Well, I
mean, there's some of them arekind of high. I think there's
some hope.
There is surprise. It's beensurprising.
Tint, we usually talk aboutproducts. But this is we're
talking about systems, thisthis, the four horsemen of the
(03:01):
recycle apocalypse. And I alsofound a new term while I was
researching this week's episode,which is about glass recycling.
So I want everyone to get thisdown wish cycling. Oh, so wish
cycling is that kind of blindtrust we put in our recycling
systems where we just throwanything into the recycling bin?
(03:23):
Oh my gosh. So wish cycling iswhen you throw that really
greasy piece of lasagna toppingaluminum in or mirrors, for
instance, can be recycled. Sowrite anything you need to look,
you need to educate yourselfbefore you just throw things in
your recycling bin becauseultimately, it wrecks the rest
(03:44):
of the recycling for you tothrow in plastic bags or you
know, paper cups with a plastictarp. You know, so, I wish
cycling is when we just kind ofblindly throw things and hope
that they're recyclable. So Igotcha cool term.
Okay, so I'm not gonna namenames, but I know somebody who
they did their research and theylooked up how to recycle a
(04:07):
motorcycle helmet.
Wow.
And this is actually a thinglike they found that like, yeah,
you can do that. But then theyput it in the bin like curbside
know that people begin torecycling open the bin and just
throw it in the yard. Like goodart because they're like, this
is not this is not where he putthis. But you know, it's
(04:30):
confusing because it's it isthat's it's recyclable, but it's
just it's different curbs versuswhat, like at my recycling
center, you can take things likelaundry baskets, I just found
out oh, wow research. You cantake like kind of heavy duty
plastics, but you have to takethem to the place. You can't
just put them in your curbside.
Yeah,I think and that's something I
mean, I know the city of Austinhas been sending out recyclable
(04:52):
pamphlets on what can go in therecycling bin and I recently
just recently I stopped puttinga plastic bag liner in my
recycling in you know, my my bininside the house and taking it
out to my outside bin. So nowwe're just dumping straight from
our little recycling trashcan inthe house, to the recycling bin
(05:13):
without the plastic.
Oh, so you were doing a plasticbag? I think a lot of people do
that becausethey sell those clear plastic
ones that are supposed to be forrecycling. Yes. And they're not.
It's so true.
It depends if you're if youdon't have a recycling bin, and
you're just putting it on thecurb. They may ask for the clear
(05:34):
bag because it makes it easierto sort or whatever. Gotcha. In
my jurisdiction. They don't wantplastic bags. Uh, you know, that
includes your little shoppingbags your little.
Yeah, we'll get into that nextweek when I talk about plastic.
So wish cycling that I love it.
Yeah. So accurate. And I do itall the time. I mean, don't we?
(05:54):
Oh, yeah, I probably not afterdoing this podcast. I'll
probably be better about it. Butlet's dive in. So this week is
our third horsemen of therecycled pocalypse which again,
it ends up is kind of a MyLittle Pony spoiler alert.
Oh my goodness. I'm so happy.
Yes, thatjust gives you some hope. But so
let's get into my sources forthis week. I started with glass
Alliance Europe, they had anarticle about what what is glass
(06:17):
and I for the record, they'repromoters of glass. So to take
everything there with a littlegrain of salt, right? Momentum
recycling talked about how glassis recycled. I believe they're
out of Utah. So that's kind ofthe process as it is in Utah but
it was a general overview. Thenwe have the glass packing
Institute glass containerrecycling loop. Then this was a
fun one chemical and EngineeringNews. They go by sea and in. So
(06:41):
see ya CNN. Oh, cute, cute,cute. But why glass recycling in
the US is broken, superinformative article, highly
recommend reading it. Ooh. Andthen eco promotional materials
had the benefits of recyclingglass. Road Runners smarter
recycling had the deepcomposition clock which had some
great info on how everythingdecomposes over time. And, and
(07:05):
then a resource that we shouldpost is recycling center near
me. This was their glassrecycling post, but they have a
locator for wherever you live tofind aggress glass recycling or
other recycling options near youif you don't have curbside. Oh,
wow. Very cool. Yeah. Let'sstart with what is glass and
again, I relied on the glassAlliance Europe for this one,
(07:28):
but I'll just quote directlyfrom them. Glass is a solid like
and transparent material that isused in numerous applications in
our daily lives. Duff.
It is hard, like I said lasttime about paper paper is thin.
Yes.
Glass is hard. Yes. It's hardand clear generally. But okay,
it's what it's made from ismostly natural materials. So
(07:52):
sand, soda, ash, and limestoneare the three main ingredients.
Also, glass calling, which we'regoing to do that's recycled
materials. And then they're allmelted down at a super high
temperature to create glass.
Glass is structurally similar toliquids when it's hot. Okay, but
at room temperature, it behaveslike a solid so some people will
(08:14):
tell you that glass is a liquid.
But I mean, it's moving soslowly for us that we can't
perceive it I guess. Wow. Butbecause if you heat it up high
enough, it turns into a liquidbasically it can be poured,
blown, pressed and molded intowhatever shape you want.
Basically. Nice, yes. So it'shighly usable substance.
(08:39):
Originally, glass was producedin Egypt and Mesopotamia as all
good things are about 3500before the common era a long
time ago when they first becausethey didn't have industrial
processes. Obviously, they madeit for smaller things like
jewelry, but then they startedusing it for vessels for liquids
and things.
Did it start okay? Please it ofme didn't know heart with
(09:01):
lightning strikes. I alwaysthink of that dumb movie with
Reese Witherspoon about Oh,Sweet Home Alabama. Oh, okay.
Yeah, it's like her loveinterest, whose name I forget is
a glassblower and he makes thesebecause when the lightning
strikes this sounds like a wholething. Yeah. Turns into
(09:23):
you know, I didn't get that deepinto the history that's that's
possible. I mean, that's there'swhole sections of it. You should
look this up but the Trinitysite in New Mexico because the
sand there with the mica andwhatever was heated to such a
high temperature didn't makeglass Oh, wow. There's pieces I
believe. Someone Someone fromthe nuclear weapons community is
(09:46):
going to correct me on this I'msure. Right. Maybe someone we
know. But and, but but there'sdead Trinity glass. I mean, it's
extremely radioactive, but itexists. So anyway, yes, high
heat plus sand equal Glass.
Cool. Yeah. Obviously how it'smade, it has to be melted first,
you can do this either withthose three materials, sand,
(10:06):
soda, ash, and limestone. Or youcan make some of those raw
materials with glass calling,which is recycled glass. You mix
these elements together. Ishouldn't say elements because
they're not elements but theirmaterials together and put them
into a furnace at about 2700degrees Fahrenheit. That's
toasty. That'll melt your faceoff. Yeah. That's 50 100 degrees
(10:30):
Celsius for our two Europeanlisteners. Yeah, there you go. I
wonder if we could come up withanother image like 15 lightning
strikes. And he said that it hadto be said it in an American
accent because we'll useanything but the metric system.
Right. Right. Then, yeah, thenthe wall or so I guess. Yes.
Celsius. Isn't metric, is it?
(10:52):
Oh, lordy. Anyway, well, isn'tjust Celsius.
It's not, but it's used by allthe metric countries, right?
Yeah.
It's it makes the most sense.
It's based on the boiling pointof water and water. Nobody's
judging you. Okay. Well, yeah,they are. Sorry, to my rocket
scientist friends. Okay. Well,you know, maybe don't screw up
your friends. Anyway. Okay.
(11:14):
Well, then the molten mixturehas taken out to be cooled and
shaped. You've probably seenglass blowing. Yes. Okay. So you
can do you can add other thingsto the mixture to make it harder
or stronger or change the colorof the glass. So that would be
an applications like fiberglass,for instance. While that doesn't
make it harder or stronger, thatthey use glass particles to make
fiberglass. Okay. In the UnitedStates, there are 44 glass
(11:38):
manufacturing plants in 21.
States.
Oh, 44. That's it? Yeah. Whoa,that's yellow.
Yeah, it seems low. Right. Andthen there are 63 glass
benefiting facilities. So placesthat process glass, or glass
products in 30 states? Well,that's also low. Yeah, something
(11:58):
to keep in mind. And you gottaassume the distance between them
is pretty great. Right? Sothat's something to keep in mind
when you think about glassrecycling. Yeah. So according to
momentum recycling, the step bystep process for recycling glass
is number one, it's collectedand delivered to the facilities
where it will be processed. Thenit's sorted. And there are
specifically sorting facilitiesthat do this. They get rid of
(12:22):
the contaminants of the wishcycling materials like ceramics
or your Pyrex bowls, yourlightbulbs, your mirrors, those
things can't go in glassrecycling, ladies and gentlemen,
you know, light bulbs. Yeah,not, that's not good.
No. And then they separate Brownfrom non brown glass, because I
guess you can't make clear glassout of brown glass,
(12:44):
if that makes sense. Make clear.
Yeah, that would make sense.
Can't get the color out?
Yeah. Okay, from there afterit's sorted, usually, by
individuals by hand. It's brokendown by this machine that has 24
Industrial hammers the size ofyour forearm, that just kind of
mashes the glass up, okay. Intocrude particles, this can create
(13:07):
like a glass dust, and so theyuse a water mist to control the
particulate matter.
Oh, keep it down. glass dustsounds unsafe. Yeah,
yeah. Is that something you wantto inhale. Then it goes through
a trommel, which is a revolvingscreen that sorts it into pieces
that are three eighths of aninch and three fourths of an
inch. That also at the sametime, detaches, labels, corks,
(13:30):
caps and lids, which go off totheir own, hopefully recycling
bins, butbecause I always wonder
sometimes I put wine bottleswith their corks in them in my
bin, and I'm like, I don't knowhow to do this.
I would take it out. At the endof this episode, you'll probably
want to clean glass as much asyou can, but I would take it
out. And then it goes throughanother process of fluidized bed
(13:53):
driver that heats the airunderneath it to 109 degrees. I
said it was kind of like an airhockey table where it kind of
lifts the stuff up and heats theair under it. Interesting. Then
it burns off label glue, and anysugars or bacteria. Okay, and
then the residue floats becausethe residue is lighter than the
(14:14):
glass, it floats up and issucked away by vacuum, which
sounds very New Age space age tome. But yeah, and then next step
is it passes through a primaryrotary screen, which calls out
specific sizes. And so they setthe screens that kind of sift
the glass particles intospecific sizes based on who
(14:35):
their buyer is going to bebecause different glass
manufacturing processes usedifferent size of this. What's
Whoa, glass calling.
Okay, that sounds just allsounds so sophisticated.
Yeah, it is. It's very hightech. So fiberglass
manufacturers, for instance,need their particles to be,
(14:56):
quote unquote 12 mesh which islike the smallest mesh house
smaller right? bottles and otherglass need larger sizes or can
use larger sizes to melt down,etc. Then the next step is
anything that doesn't make itthrough the primary screen there
gets sent to the pulverizer.
Again, it's another 36 hammersthat aggressively reduced
particle size, if what I readthat to mean was Smash. Yeah,
(15:18):
I'm thinking of like Hulk Smash.
Yeah, the Hulk Smash, but it's36 industrial sized hammers. And
then that material goes backthrough the primary screen to be
sorted again. Okay, that is aprocess that continues until
everything goes through, thenyou have a secondary rotary
screen size classifier to sortthem into four sizes for the
(15:40):
different end markets. So it'ssorted again.
So this is after all the colorshave been sorted through so they
do this for every color.
I think so that I didn't thatmight be very over the overly
complicated. I'm just yeah, itjust sounds like so much.
There's just too much involved.
Yeah, well, but it's a lot ofit's automated, I mean,
obviously, okay, and I've beenwrong, it's not glass calling,
(16:01):
it's glass cullet. So those arethe glass pieces that end up and
they can be the everything theyrange from the size of pebbles
to sand to even powder which canbe used for different reasons.
And then it's sold to end usersfor different production
purposes and momentum recyclinglisted new glass containers, so
that'd be bottles, jars, etc.
Okay, and then fiberglass youcan use this kind of sand or the
(16:25):
powder for our abrasives likesandblast for your sandblasters
okay, they also use it as abinder in ceramics and bricks.
So that would be like thepowder. You can use it as a
filler and paints and plastics.
Really, yep. You can use it in acertain type of material which I
didn't write down but it's it'san alternative for natural clays
(16:48):
or fly ash. Okay, it's also usedas a filtration medium for water
usually like swimming pools, butsometimes municipal water
sources use it to Okay, and thena friction ater in matches in
and ammunition which is probablymy favorite word that feels made
up.
Like that causesthe friction. Yeah, it matches
the friction ater. So that's onyour backpack, you know, the
(17:11):
friction there. And then you canuse it as an additive in flux
and flux and metal foundry too.
So those are the basics. Okay,that's a lot. It's a lot in
terms of recycling rates.
According to the glass packagingInstitute in 2018 39.6% of beer
and soft drink bottles wererecovered for recycling. That's
according to the EPA 39.8% ofwine and liquor bottles and 15%
(17:35):
of food and other glass jars. Soin total 33.1% of all glass food
and beverage containers wererecycled in America in 2018.
That's pretty low at super low.
super low.
So what was the food andbeverage I'm trying to think
what comes in glass? It's like aregular food and beverage or the
(17:55):
Lhasa? Oh,any you know any jams, jellies,
right? Okay.
The container and fiberglassindustries collectively
purchased 3.3 5 million tons ofrecycled glass, which is
remelted and repurposed for usein the production of new
containers and fiber fiberglassproducts. So they like it. Yeah,
so we're gonna start with thenegative, why wouldn't you
(18:17):
recycle glass? Number one, wehave to say this with every
process. As a person who'sdevoted to green living, there's
the obvious reason. Recyclingglass is a process that uses
energy and water resources. Soif you're trying to reduce your
individual footprint, you'drather reuse a glass jar, than
have it recycled to make moreglass jars. And we're doing a
(18:38):
mini episode on that. Yes. AndI'm very excited. Yeah. Okay.
Now also, according to theRoadrunner, smarter recycling
decomposition clock. Glass takesa million years to decompose.
Well, yeah, I mean, it usuallygets broken up. Obviously, if
(18:59):
you've ever dropped somethinglike a glass bottle on the
street, you know that it'sbreakable. So usually, but
generally, like if you justthrow it in the landfill, and it
didn't break a million years.
Whoa. But eventually it wouldactually just from pressure.
Yeah, again, anything pluspressure equals biodegrade. Wow.
(19:21):
That's insane. I love how that'slike. It's just math. Obviously,
wehaven't been making glass for a
million years, right? We haven'teven done that. There's not a
single piece of glass that isdecomposed on this planet. Well,
that we know. Okay, but the realreason that you would not
recycle glass is because on acultural level, the United
States is just bad at it. Sothis is where the article from
(19:45):
CNN comes in, and I'm just goingto quote directly from them.
There are many reasons why moreglass isn't recycled in the US,
says David Rhew, an engineer atthe gas Technology Institute
near Chicago who recentlycompleted a year long study of
us glassware recycling as aconsultant, the US glass
recycling shortfall comes downto the interplay between the
quality and availability ofcullet. So that's the glass
(20:07):
particles and the economics ofmaking glass, he says, and he
says the recycling ratediscrepancies between the US and
other countries result mainlyfrom differences in government
policy and consumer educationand habits. So he says, by
understanding these hurdles, theglass recycling, industry groups
hope to boost the rate in theUS. Just to brag it up about our
(20:27):
European counterparts. Most ofthem on average, recycle glass
at a rate of 90%.
Whoa. That's not supersurprising, I guess.
I know. I mean, they're good atbut the big three, okay, so the
big reason is, they talk aboutthe difference between single
stream recycling and multistream recycling. Okay. Yeah. So
(20:50):
single stream recycling is justcurbside pickup at individual
residences. That's what Americagenerally does. Yeah. So we just
throw it in all together. And alot of wish cycling goes into
it. Yeah, like motorcyclehelmets. Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. So
multistream recycling simplifiesthe process for the processors
(21:11):
to do their work because italready separates glass from
other materials like aluminumand paper. Uh huh. So that's
already cuts down economicallyin the process for the
processors.
It's like in the Netherlands.
Yep.
They have. And they may evenhave separate, you know, glass,
like clear glass goes here.
Thankfully, did actually glassgoes here. Yeah. So that makes
(21:32):
it if individuals put the effortin to do that, it makes it
cheaper for the processors, youknow, because they don't have to
spend as much money sortingsomething kind of interesting.
You know, I grew up in Indiana,and we never had curbside. Oh,
wow. Yeah, really barely hadcurbside trash. You have to pay
like 10 bucks for it orsomething. Anyway, never had
(21:53):
curbside recycling. But you tookyour stuff to the recycling
center. And you had to sort ityourself. Yeah, I think
we had some of that inAlbuquerque, too. We had, they
didn't have curbside glassrecycling. And so you had to
take the glass yourself to adrop off point. Right. The other
(22:14):
thing about that multistreamprocess? Is that usually the
glass that goes there is a lotcleaner than other glass
already. Is it? Yeah. Becauseyou're not going to take it in
your car, if it's just leakinggunk. Okay? I mean, that's part
of it. So it can bypass thosematerials, recovery facilities
and go straight to theprocessors. Oh, the problem is
(22:37):
that you have to be educated andwilling to do this initial step,
right. Also, on a municipal andlocal level is cheaper for
cities to implement singlestream than multi stream
interesting. Then another factorthat goes into it, the distances
in the US, between all thefacilities that are part of this
process is way further than itis in Europe. So to transport
(23:02):
the collected glass to thesorting facility, and then from
there to the processingfacility, that'll make, you
know, the glass cullet thattakes a lot Hulk smash it up.
Yeah, a lot more fossil fuel,and then to get it to the
processing plants that createglass is even more, you know,
(23:22):
time resources and money, andfossil fuels and, you know,
transportation and all thosethings. So, the US is just too
big, and the processes are toospread out. Okay. or, excuse me,
the processing facilities aretoo spread out for it to be as
simple as it is in Europe.
Yeah, it makes it I mean, yeah,because European countries are
like the size of Massachusetts.
Yeah.
(23:43):
So, ya know, and at the sametime, glass cullet quality, and
type can change how it is used.
So, the cullet made from bottlesand jars is incompatible with
window glass or fiberglasscomponents. So color producers
have to have extra processes inplace to separate these things
(24:04):
out, right. So that means theburden is on them. So it's not
necessarily a great money makingventure for them. So all those
things add up and make glassrecycling in the US. Kind of a
monster. But you should recycleglass and here's why. Okay, a
color according to the glasspackaging Institute. Glass is
(24:27):
100% recyclable without losingquality or purity. Like
aluminum. You can do itinfinitely.
Oh my god. Yeah, that is soexciting.
Yep. recycled glass cansubstitute up to 95% of the raw
materials. So that cuts down onneeding to get sand and
(24:49):
limestone Wow. Or soda ash,which I guess you can harvest
sand. I mean, we seem to have aninfinite amount of sand but I'm
sure there are better types ofsand and you know,
yeah, Uh, although Aren't mostof our beaches like manmade?
A lot of them? Yeah, they'reusually reclaimed land. Yeah.
But yeah, I guess you can makesand from a lot of things. Yeah.
(25:10):
But the other thingis that I don't know why this is
the case, but a lot of placesquoted energy costs to make
recycled glass, or two to 3%.
Less for every 10% of color usedin the manufacturing process.
Oh, that's a lot of numbers.
I know. And then some anotherplace. I'm just gonna go through
(25:33):
all of my sources and say whatthey say because a lot of them
have different numbers in there.
But anywhere from 5% less per10% of call it used. I mean, two
to 3% seems to be standard, butokay. There's also an economic
reason. It creates jobs. Yeah,that's kind
of what I was thinking. Yeah.
Are these sorry, are theserecycling sent? The manufacturer
(25:53):
the processing facilities? Arethey like government run or
government funded? Are theyprivate? They're private.
I think they, the government maypay them to take this stuff. But
they're, they're privatelyowned. Interesting. Okay. Yeah.
So recycling 1000 tons of glass,according to The Container
Recycling Institute createsslightly over eight jobs in your
(26:14):
community. Interesting. Yeah.
And and states that have bottlebuyback bills, bottle bills,
beverage container depositsystems provide 11 to 38 times
more direct jobs than curbsiderecycling systems. Whoa, yeah.
And that's according to theContainer Recycling Institute
returning to work, understandingthe jobs impacts from different
methods of recycling beveragecontainers, which is a very
(26:35):
specific study that I'm veryinterested in. Boy. I love
these. Yeah, I know. They'relike the nerds that I mean, it's
a we're nerding out Yeah, andsuper, super helpful. Yeah. But
okay. According to our friends,CNN, see, and in, Americans
throw away 10 million metrictons of glass. And only half of
(26:55):
that gets recycled. Cardboard.
So thatthat's per year. Yeah. My god.
Yeah.
So using glass cullet reducesthe need for manufacturers to
use those raw materials silica,sodium carbonate, limestone.
Plus, you get 20% more glass outof recycled cullet per kilogram
(27:17):
than raw materials. And I don'tknow how they did that math. But
it was one for every you get 20%more glass mass can be created?
Yeah, I don't know. I think it'sjust based on time and process.
Interesting. Yeah. It lowers thecost of the final product,
(27:37):
obviously. And it improves thequality of it, because you can
control recycled glass call itbetter than sand melting call,
it doesn't release co2 or othergases trapped in the glass via
air bubbles. CNN said basically,for every six metric tons of
color, using manufacturingglassmakers can cut one metric
(27:57):
ton of co2 emissionsway so it stays trapped.
No, I think it there it isn't inthe air bubbles anyway. Okay. Or
the way that the process does?
It doesn't release it in theair. Yeah, all
this crap is so confusing. Iknow. But still, okay. So that's
like a net positive, right?
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay, so eco promotionalproducts also had more stats.
(28:20):
Are you ready? So it savesenergy. Recycling is less energy
sucking than creating new glass.
It consumes 40% less energy thanmaking new glass from raw
materials, right. And that meansreduced emissions of nitrogen
oxide and carbon dioxide. Theysay it reduces air pollution by
20%. Over making new glass niceand reduces water pollution by
(28:41):
50%. Whoa, are making new glassright? Obviously, it reduces
landfill. It takes as little as30 days for recycled glass
bottle to leave your recyclingbin and appear on a store shelf
has a new glass container. Thatis so cool, man as opposed to a
million years in a landfill.
Yeah, right. No minordifference. All right, again,
(29:01):
conserves natural resources.
every tonne of glass that isrecycled saves more than a ton
of raw materials that you wouldneed to create new glass.
Okay, so this is a really dumbquestion. But I'm just thinking
through maybe our listeners arenot really sure about this
either. But it's like, I don't Ijust haven't thought about this
before. But basically therecycling center that I take my
(29:23):
crap to or gets picked upcurbside, but I take some stuff
too. I go there, I throw it in abin and then nothing happens to
it there. Right. It just getssent to one of these processes
sortingfacility generally, unless
there's a sorting facility onsite. Yeah.
See, that's so interesting,because I always kind of just in
my, in my mind, assume thatstuff happened there.
It might I mean, it depends onthe facility. Okay.
(29:45):
I don't know. Yeah. I have noidea about but yeah, it's
like, you know, there'sdifferent players that are
involved for different amountsof money and
Okay, so interesting. All right.
Yeah.
I mean, at the end of the day,glass is just fucking better
than plus to. And again, it'swhy wouldn't you recycle it?
Like if you're not going toreuse it and we are going to do
(30:06):
an episode a mini episode on howto reuse glass jars and things?
Yes, the things that we'velearned over the years, yeah, if
you're notgoing to reuse it, don't throw
it away, recycle it. Now again,clean it you know, rinse it out,
I've we run our jars at thedishwasher before we put them in
the recycling bin. Usually,again, though, they can catch
(30:27):
the corks and the caps and the,you know, other parts, but clean
it as much as you can. If if youwant to be a super good person,
write to your representative andask them to implement better
recycling policies. curbside,again is cheaper for cities.
Americans don't like to pay forthings. We don't like to pay
(30:48):
taxes. And we don't like to we'dlike to wish cycle we'd like to
Yeah, we don't like to vote.
Yeah, we don't like to separateour aluminum from our paper from
our Yeah, goout of our way to take the time
for that stuff.
If you live in a place thatdoesn't have curbside glass
recycling, as my French teacherused to say it's worth the pain
(31:09):
to say it in French Savola. Ben,take it to your local center.
And if you have a you live in astate that has bottle buyback,
make some money off of it, getyour bottle bought back from
you. It is worth it. It doesmake an impact.
I think I looked that up. Idon't remember maybe I looked up
aluminum. But I looked up onebecause Indiana, my county at
(31:31):
least used to have that and theydon't anymore. Yeah, maybe it is
a statewide thing. Butyeah, it's cutting back on
taxpayer money has to come fromsomewhere. So I mean, I guess if
they sell the glass to certainplaces for sorting and whatnot,
they can make money back off ofit, but it's part of a state
budget. So yeah. Yeah, thatmakes sense. So that's glass
recycling in a nutshell, and mygranola rating. Uh huh. I gave
(31:55):
it a four out of five country. Ilove it similar to aluminum.
Again, the reason that it's notgetting a five out of five is
because Americans are lazy, andthe available systems for
recycling. hold us back. Andthat's not just because
Americans are lazy. It's becausewe don't have the political
system in place to prioritizethese kinds of things.
(32:20):
Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say Imean, laziness is certainly part
of it. But it's also busynessand lack of clarity, I would say
and educate. I mean, we aren'tparticularly well educated on
recycling. Right. But yeah, Iwill never throw a glass
container in a trash can everagain.
Oh, it just feels like bad todo.
Yeah, I mean, even I hate to saythis, but even if it's broken
(32:43):
into a bunch of pieces, if youcan safely put it in your
recycling bin. It getsthat's really interesting.
Sometimes. I'm trying to thinkof what I've done is with
sometimes I put Oh, yeah, yeah,I had like a glass pane from a
picture frame. And I didn't wantthe people collecting it to get
cut. So I like put it in a paperbag. And I didn't know if that
(33:04):
was what was gonna happen. Thatwas definitely a wish cycling
thing. I don't know whathappened with it. It probably
got thrown in the landfill. Butthat's I have heard that before.
Because you kind of have to likethink about your recycle,
recycle folks. Like you can'tthrow in tin. When you open your
cans. You have the sharp, roundthing. Those are not recyclable
(33:26):
because they can really cutpeople. Yeah. So glass is the
same way. So I don't know whathappens if it's in a paper bag.
Butyeah, it looks like so broken
glass cannot be recycled. Andoh, really, they they ask that
you please wrap it in severallayers of newspaper or seal it
in a box and label the packageglass before putting it in your
trash cart.
(33:47):
Trash. Alright, so I think I gothalfway there.
Yeah. Yeah, that's a bummer,though. I wonder if it can be
recycled elsewhere?
I'd kind of doubt it. It'sprobably the same reason that
the what do you call those? Thelids? They're not lids. They're
the sharp tops of cans that youOh, yeah. The the tabs. Not even
(34:08):
the tabs. Me? Oh, like when youuse a can opener. You have this?
Like round top of the lid thatcomes apart? And that's like,
razors, basically. Yeah.
Anyways, it's probably the samereason because people can really
cut themselves. Yeah, I mean,okay, so
I'm going to have to show youhow to open a can so that you
don't have sharp edges.
Oh, please do I've actuallyokay, do I feel like I've seen
(34:30):
this online or something, youjust do it backwards or
something new, layit sideways. So you know how you
you know, see if vertically, youknow you normally put the
cutters on top of the canvertically, you lay it on its
side. So you're spinning aroundhorizontally. If you take video
of it the next time you open acan Yeah, do it doesn't leave a
(34:51):
rooftop.
Oh my gosh. That's awesome.
That's helpful. So maybe thatwould be recyclable that night.
didn't increase my aluminumrecycling. Oh yeah, for sure are
10 What is it again? Are theymade from tin
rhodium from aluminum? Well,those are 10. Yeah, tin tin cans
are different, but they're stillrecyclable. We aren't doing one
on them. I just found a blogcalled recycle coach that talks
(35:14):
about whether or not brokenglass is recyclable. They
basically come down to call yourlocal bottle accepting place. I
have interesting in our shownotes as well.
Well, the other thing that'sconfusing about that is it when
they pour my pour out bottlesfrom my curbside bin into the
truck, you know, breaks to shit.
So I know.
That's kind of interesting.
Yeah, who knows? All right.
(35:36):
There you go. So that's awesome.
That's nice. I feel better aboutit now than I did.
Me too. I feel better aboutwell, most recycling plastic was
like I cried myself to sleep.
But we'll get into that nextweek. Yeah,
so I guess we should talk aboutnext week. Our four horsemen of
the apocalypse is kind of turnedinto three My Little Ponies and
(35:58):
one horsemen. Soyeah, and it's definitely death.
It's definitelydead. So next week, we're doing
starting with plastic. Andbecause of the amount of
research we're going to do it intwo episodes. Yes, right. Yes.
It's gonna be a doo doo. Oh,parter. Yeah, it's not right. To
ordertwo parter. Yeah. So wow, I'm
(36:18):
concerned for my sleep afteryou.
Maybe should be, to be honest.
really disturbing. Yeah, it wasjust way too much. And I
couldn't do it. And when Ididn't, mostly I wanted to give
it the time it deserves becauseit really deserves some time.
It's complex. I mean, obviously,glass recycling systems are
(36:41):
there's, I think that article bysea, and in that I had, I think
everyone should read it just tokind of open your eyes as to
what, what is holding us back.
Right. And, you know, we can doour parts. But there's a lot of
policy that has to be made and alot of players that aren't
making money off of it. Sothey're not going to do anything
about it.
Right. And all of our all theselinks are in the show notes, so
(37:04):
you can just check them out.
Yeah, soWell, wow. Yeah, email us. Your
concerns about my take on howglass was first formed by
lightning and our nuclearfission. We're at greening up my
act@gmail.com.
Yeah, send us an email. If youhave any requests or curiosities
(37:26):
or questions,you can just do what our family
does and message us personally.
Thanks, Julia. Thanks. So mysister,
or Instagram my like to respondto this?
Oh, yeah. Tiffany does a greatjob on her Instagram. So kudos.
Awesome. All right. Well, wewill see you next week. And
thanks for listening.
(37:46):
Thank you.
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