Recycle - Any ideas

[Scott Novota]

I have an interesting conversation with a chap the other night at the local drinking hole. He was going on and on about how his green company is buying pretty much anything that is "green".

While we where sitting there the bartender tossed out about 200 pounds of beer bottles, hard stuff bottles, and broken glasses. Apparently they don't mix the trash in the bar and it was all just there for the taking.

We got to talking about it and it was very hard for me to explain to him why those bottles are hard to recycle. I was left feeling like I did not know enough about the subject but just enough to know it was not worth my time.

Our conclusion was that I knew enough to crap on the idea but not enough to answer his question. I had a couple points like the cost to melt them was more than the price of the glass, and they are stiff, and most likely they have been recycled at least one other time. What I did not have was an answer for the following:

"Why are you not using those free bottles to make something...anything!"

Now I understand they are stiff, and the horse has been kicked enough by Franklin, but could you not do something? Anything? Cast them into bricks?

Anyone want to help me our here. Will they even melt down into a homogeneous mix once melted and mixed together? Will they anneal if mixed?

I don't want to blow them. I honestly never want to work with them in that manner but I would however like to toss this around with people that know more than myself to see if there is something that they can be used for. Aggregate for cement or poured moulds? Any ideas?

I hate it when someone stumps me and I don't have what it takes to answer a question.

Scott.
.

[Barb Sanderson]

I can't answer most of your questions but there are people out there who use bottle glass pieces, fuse or tumble the sharp edges off and resell it for garden projects. A local company's website is here: http://www.bedrockindustries.com/

Barb

[Rollin Karg]

The cost just to get bottles to the plant usually exceeds the raw material costs for the big melters.The color and melting issues also make it a not worth the trouble deal. Sorry, I think that industry is just too efficient to make this cost effective.

[Ken Peterson]

you are opening a huge can of worms my friend. Are you sure you want to go there. Well......... here's a trick I did right before the GAS conference, and I am still wondering why this object is so interesting to people. The process was as follows.......

Drink beer, think of idea!!! put bottle into garage type device, pick up on punty from bottom of bottle, neck bottle down about an inch down the wide spot, apply punty to bottle openening and divide the bottle in two. The bottom of the bottle becomes the cup of the goblet so put that back in the garage and deal with it later but keep it on the punty. Open neck such that it's a pedestal type foot. Put neck/foot in garage not attached to a punty. Pull cup out of garage and open. Punty on inside of cup. Assemble goblet.

All you need is beer bottle, garage, and glory hole

something tells me that there are a lot of answers to your question. I like recycling. The glass is stiff, and it has a short working time, but it has it's up sides too.... Have fun! :)

[Tom Fuhrman]

there are some parts of the country where they are crushing thewm and using them in concrete and asphalt. There have also been projects where they have developed "brick forms that can be used for construction purposes. These are very structural and have amazing insulating qualities. There was a lengthy presentation on this particular subject at the GAS conference held in Oakland, quite a few years ago. As I recall, the fellows at Penn State were doing a lot of research on different types of glass recycling for making building materials. I don't know that any commercial companies have decided to use any of this technology as yet. It's the same old thing, if it isn't broke, don't fix it and at what cost does it entail? That's the reason a lot of the US glass manufacturers have fallen by the way. They just couldn't change the way they did things for one reason or another. Unions and traditions have been difficult to change. Economy, and monetary expenditures have kept a lot of technology from getting to market. Until there is a way to economically collect the containers and process them somehow, they will continue to be thrown away, unless it is required by law that they are recycled or as some states charge a deposit on their containers, both glass and plastic.

[Dan Ellis]

Years ago (1980ish) I was at a Ball Glass bottle plant and they were dumping tons of cullet (broken bottles) into the furnace to make juice bottles. The basement and back area outside had piles of it and a guy on a catlike thing would come in and scoop it up and drop in on a conveyor belt to go to the furnace. It was melted up near the roof and would pour through the machinery into the moulds on the main floor. the mould popped open and 3 bottles slide down the belt. Every 20 - 30 seconds another three came out of the machine.

[Ken Peterson]

wow that's cool

[Brian Graham]

The "Clean Washington Center" website has many articles in pdf format in regards to utilizing post-consumer glass waste. I printed many of them out and made a binder out of them - great information and experimentation.

Here's a link to the site: http://www.cwc.org/glass.htm

One of the best papers is "Using Post-Consumer Glass for Glass Blowing and Glass Casting"

http://www.cwc.org/glass/gl965rpt.pdf

And my favorite: "Color Modification of Post-Consumer Glass Cullet" - Ro Purser is one of the authors.

http://www.cwc.org/glass/gl964rpt.pdf

[Ken Peterson]

What happens if you recycle everything? Try it for a day. It's quite an interesting experience :) ;)

[Ken Peterson]

damn homeless people in my way? Are you really the embodyment of recycling? Have you ever noticed that a homeless person's existence has a lot to do with recyling. I've been thinking alot about my new big blue recycling bins. Is they taking me glass? But where are the homeless people going to go. Sorry man....... you asked :)

[Sandy Dukeshire]

personaly i have recycled about a bojillion wine bottles. the biggest pain is to take off the lables. i save this project for my high school interns. they have been melted flat for the ever popular cheese boards, i have cut off the bottom 4" (incredibly strong bottoms) turned them upside down and pressed them into the soil to made a pretty garden walkway. i have fused them to make everything from jewelry to light fixtures. save the corks, jam them back into a cut down neck and add hardware to make pulls and knobs. i have seen kens idea done cold-cut off the bottom, attach to the top and you have a goblet- but i have not tried that. corona and red stripe beer bottles are fun glasses when the neck is opened hot. dont tell too many people you are saving bottles. it can get out of control fast.
large scale recycling is a different animal.
good luck
sandy

[Dave Bross]

Ken,

I love the little verse in your signature!

Made me laugh, made me think, made my day...and what more could one ask for?

I've sent it to a few other art friends... it made their day too.

[Lawrence Ruskin]

In the worker's paradise of British Columbia 82% of container glass is recycled, mainly re-melted.Plate is re-used in other ways for example drain rock, asphalt, fiberglass, etc.

B.C.'s largest and fastest growing bank, Vancity was founded by Bob Willams, a socialist. You listening David?

It doesn't charge it's members to use bank machines, is carbon neutral and gives big bucks to the environment.

It handles my car and house insurance for cheap.

It's lineups aren't bad either