Why recycle glass:
Glass is an important material in packaging, especially for the beverage industry. Recycling glass conserves the amount of raw material required for manufacturing new bottles. The process of recycling glass is a simple yet highly beneficial one.
Energy consumption while recycling glass:
Recycling glass helps to save resources and the environment. In the year 2002, 8611,000,000 kWh of energy including electricity was used by the glass industry in the manufacture of glass. In the manufacturing process 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions was released. Glass can be recycled a number of times without any loss in the quality of the final recycled product. For every ton of glass that is recycled 345kwh of energy is conserved, 225kg of CO2 emissions is averted, 1.2 tons of quarrying resources are saved and the amount of unused glass in landfills is reduced. If you were to recycle two bottles, the energy saved could be utilized to boil water for five cups of tea.
Contaminants while recycling glass:
The recycled glass needs to be inspected for any kind of contaminants. Common contaminants include metal, paper, plastics, organics, ceramics and pyro ceramics. Removal of contaminants is done via separation by manual inspection along with the utilization of high tech equipment such as metal detectors, vacuums, crushers, screens etc
How glass is recycled:
The main components of glass are cullet (which are shards of scrap glass), sand, soda ash and limestone. These ingredients are easily available. The greater the amount of recycled glass used, the lower the temperature required for melting the other materials. Usually 90% of recycled glass is used along with the raw materials. Color in the glass is achieved by controlling the amount of iron content in the glass or by adding minor coloring agents. The critical step in manufacturing glass is weighing the ingredients in correct proportion before it is passed to the furnace. This process is usually automated and carried out in a batch house that mixes the ingredients
In the furnace, the recycled glass melts and regains its pristine condition once again. A glass works furnace operates around the clock 365 days a year producing around 300 tons of glass a day.
There are a number of quality checks in place to ensure that the glass that is produced meets the quality requirements. Some of these tests include an automatic container wall thickness inspection, squeeze testing, seal surface inspection, side wall scanning and base wall scanning. Interval sampling of bottles is done to check the dimensions of the bottles being produced.
Getting involved in glass recycling:
Once the contents are consumed, glass bottles and jars should be sent to a recycle bank to be recycled. In order to promote recycling, industries are often willing to pay a little more for obtaining glass for recycling than new raw materials. In order to be environmentally efficient glass should be separated according to color in collecting centers. Kerb side collection of glass to be replaced makes it easier to color separate bottles before they go to a collection plant. When recycling glass containers, the caps are removed and the bottle is rinsed with water.
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