Glass products have been with us through a great deal of our known history and have always been an energy intensive product to create. While the basic materials of glass are fairly common they still require some energy expenditure to collect. The basic ingredients are fine silica sand or pulverized sandstone rock with a bit of calcium, oxide and lime. Depending on the quality of the finished product it can also contain an alkali of soda or potash which is used to lower the melting point and conserve at least a small bit of the energy required to melt these substances together.

The large scale-commercial manufacture of modern glass products generally require a temperature of around 1500 degrees Celsius (about 2700 degrees Fahrenheit) in order to blend the ingredients together into the clear glass substance that can be used to form our many glass products. It is also at this phase of production that other minerals can be added to the mixture to create the various colors that have special-use requirements. Of special interest is the manufacturing of glass bottles and containers.

The high temperature requirements to melt the raw materials into new glass create a severe environmental impact on air quality. This is due to the CO2 emissions in either the burning of fossil fuels to heat the vats directly or to produce the electrical power that can also be used to create new glass. This carbon signature is great enough that it can adversely affect the glass making industry and make the use of substitute materials for bottle and jar use more cost efficient with the view of entirely new products.

This is where the recycling of previously used glass makes its greatest impact. Grinding old glass up and remelting it to form new products requires only 60% as much energy to produce. That statistics and industry reports show there is already about a 22% use of recycled glass being used which helps diminish both the need for mining new raw materials and also the energy requirements and environmental impact on the planet.

Glass does not degrade and material is not lost in the recycling and remelting process however many times it is returned to the melting fires. The primary concern with recycled glass is that it must be sorted by color, as the minerals used to create the colors cannot be removed from the glass even in melt. There is still a use for mixed glass in the production of such glass containing products as fiberglass insulation. This form of glass recycling is under used because of most manufacturers preferring new glass that can be colored for brand recognition rather than environmental conservation.

On top of the energy savings of reusing glass from older products, there is the other environmental consideration of expanding landfills. Currently the modern waste stream comprises about 5% by weight and 2% by volume of glass that has been thrown away rather than being collected and reused. With millions of tons of glass being left uncollected each year the drain on resources for local municipalities maintaining their waste dumps is as great as the drain on our planet’s finite raw materials.