News, In Cheyenne, glass pile shows recycling challenges. (furnace, plastic, buy)

[JD59]

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - After working out at a gym, Amy Mahaffy dropped off a half-dozen glass jars in a city recycling container before heading home.
The containers however won't end up being recycled any time soon. Their destination: A mound of glass at the city landfill, an ever-growing monument to the difficulty many communities across the country face in finding a market for a commodity that's too cheap for its own good.

In Cheyenne, glass pile shows recycling challenges

[Tanque Verde]

President Obama can easily solve this problem through taxation of every glass container sold in America. Lets say two bucks per container just for starters. That would certainly create value for all those cheaper glass containers currently piling up in landfills all across the nation.

And the real payoff comes when our dear leader discovers he needs to start up a secondary program where we have to pay additional taxes on top of the new glass container tax to help all the poor people pay for the two dollar tax on every glass container.

So you see, more government at greater cost to the people will solve all of our problems no matter what they might be.

Signed; dear leader.

[thecoalman]

Considering the raw material for glass is cheap, abundant and easily attainable you have to wonder if it's worth the effort.

[Tanque Verde]

There will never be a market for recycled glass, or maybe they'll just create a market at great expense to the consumer/taxpayer.

Either way, everything we make here on planet earth will eventually decompose back into planet earth, so whats the big rush.

If the human race disappeared today, any and all evidence of our existence here on earth would disappear in little more than the blink of an eye as measured in geological time.

That's why I have to laugh a little whenever I see one of those eco wiener commercials claiming plastic grocery bags will last forever in our landfills.......

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Tanque Verde

That's why I have to laugh a little whenever I see one of those eco wiener commercials claiming plastic grocery bags will last forever in our landfills.......

Those landfills will be prime real estate in the not so distant future and the older they are the more valuable they will be. Everything you could possibly want is in them. Metals and plastics just to name two.

[Jill61]

Is it out of vogue to read linked article all the way to the end now?

Within sight of its landfill glass, Cheyenne has begun building a recycling center that will handle a variety of materials including glass. The city still needs to complete two more leachate wells at the landfill, Pino said, and after that the center should be able to process the rest of the stockpiled glass.

. . .

The city plans to buy a glass pulverizer and is considering at least two uses for the glass it plans to grind into a fine consistency—in place of sand in road construction and at playgrounds, Pino said.

"It's not dangerous. It's been tested—it works great," he said. "We don't want to just keep stockpiling it. We want to find another use for it."

Doesn't sound like that much of a problem to me.

[tcrackly]

Funny thing is that glass and metal are those materials that go back to their basic forms in the environment... and they pose no threat or harm other than physical sharp edges. We could dump such things in the sea for reefs or use it in soil and paving aggregates with no adverse effects. I live near the coast. Everyone loves sea glass.

[poconoproud]

there actually is a market for recycled glass. Countertops are made of recycled glass.
So are floors, glasswares, for use in in water filtration, for cleaning rust or paint as opposed to sandblasting...and in decorative glasswares, as well. There are a lot of uses for the product, and it is up to that communities leaders to find the avenues available to them that will enable them to reuse this valuable resource.

[thecoalman]

The key poconoproud is finding a market close the where they at. They mention a facility close by but the facility wants "clean" glass. According to the article the separation of colors is important. I'm sure there is demand for it but I'll also imagine it has or will reach saturation. You're starting with a product that can be created fro resources with little value to begin with. If it's going to cost you more to recycle it which would probably include using more energy suchas shipping it somewhere it's pretty pointless to do it for both economic and environmental reasons.

for use in in water filtration

I'd imagine it makes excellent water filter for the same reason anthracite coal does. Anthracite fractures into many odd shapes as would the glass as opposed to sand which would have a much rounder shape. The filters are just as effective as sand but because they have these odd shapes they don't clog up as fast and can last much longer.

[North Beach Person]

Crushed glass can also be used in the asphalt mix for parking lots although it's not strong enough for highway use. Ocean City, MD uses it.
One use for waste glass is to mix it in with new glass at about a 10% rate, it helps lower the melting point of the raw materials (sand, soda ash, lime, etc.) therefore lowering the furnace temperature and saving on energy costs. The problem is mixed colors which are effectively impossible to remove from the cullet. We used to do this at the glass plant I worked at which made all clear (flint) bottles although we had one machine with a color option. That glass had to be segregated from all the rest, even the Bacardi bottles that had just a hint of green. We also had recycling days where we paid folks 7 cents/lb (I think, it was 30+ years ago) if they brought their separated by color bottles in.