cullet shortage

[Pete VanderLaan]

It has changed so much since I wrote the sections on Batch Glass for Glassnotes IV. Most of the suppliers I used are long gone. It's hard to buy chemicals reasonably unless you have a nice connection with a huge user. All the little jobbers have vanished. In color, I am continuing to run on the materials I bought fifteen years ago for the most part. Things like silver nitrate or gold chloride, I continue to make myself although nitric acid is far more difficult to acquire reasonably. Chemicals such as nitrates are difficult to acquire since 9/11 and the McVeigh bombing.