There is good money in the recycling business. You can go into business for yourself to make glass aggregate out of your own recycled glass. Your glass recycling business can be as big or small as you want it to be. There are glass aggregate machines that will take up little space in your garage, or you can have a large machine that takes hundreds of pounds of cullet per hour to grind into aggregate. The glass aggregate systems removes bottle caps, labels and there is no need to pre-break the bottles. Once the word gets out that you have glass aggregate for sale you may have lots of customers.
We are living in the green generation. There is money to be made in the green movement. Recycling has become the norm; one form of recycling is glass bottle recycling. The condition of our environment depends on glass being recycled because it is not biodegradable. Glass will never break down to its composite parts. If not for recycling of glass bottles and jars. If we do not recycle our glass containers they will be deposited in the landfills taking up valuable space. Since glass does not biodegrade it will remain in its present form forever and millions of tons of glass would accumulate over time. That glass that has been thrown away could be put to good use, if only they were recycled.
Where does glass come from?
Glass is made from soda ash, sand, lime, silica and other raw materials that give it its characteristics. Brown glass has trace amounts of sulfur and carbon in the mixture, while green glass contains iron. Some colors are faint, while others are dark. For instance, green beer bottles have more iron in them than glass that is of a fainter green color. As glass is being made from scratch the sand, silica, soda ash, and other ingredients are combined with the elements if coloring is added. All the ingredients are heated together until they become liquid. The glass becomes clear because as it cools the atoms align in such a way that the properties of the initial ingredients change into a new structure.
If we didn’t recycle we would soon deplete our natural resources making glass. One way to use up recycled glass is to mix in cullet (broken recycled glass) into the glass mixture. Since glass has all the natural resources already in its structure, cullet is a great resource to manufacture glass. Recycled glass added to the main ingredients in the manufacturing of glass that is made from scratch helps the ingredients to melt at lower temperatures, which thereby saves energy.
For what is cullet used?
Cullet has many uses; it is an inexpensive, yet valuable product. Glass is ground down into cullet, which can be ground down a pea sized gravel consistency called aggregate which is used in the construction industry, and in the landscaping industry. First, let’s look at the construction industry. Glass aggregate formed from cullet is used in the making of concrete. It’s used in the construction of roads. Aggregate is used as bedding and backfill. When added to concrete aggregate saves on the use of raw materials to make the concrete, and it makes the concrete stronger.
Cullet ground down to aggregate is used in the manufacturing of terrazzo and mosaic flooring tiles. It’s used in the manufacture of counter tops, and patio tiles. Fiberglass is another product that has many uses; this is made of aggregate that comes from recycled glass cullet. There are many uses for recycled glass, from roofing to marbles, to jewelry.
In home construction and landscaping architects use different types of glass aggregate made from cullet in the formation of pea gravel in a rainbow of colors. Aggregate is used as filler for drainage systems, and it’s also used in some swimming pool filters.
Sources:
http://www.metrokc.gov/procure/green/glass.htm#2
http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/companies/products/glass-aggregate/
http://www.glassagg.com/
