Recycling....

In the process of making glass as with any other manufacturing process, there are always imperfections and mistakes that cause the product to need to be scrapped.  In the glass world, the scrap and mistakes can usually be discarded and used again.  Most glass manufactures find a way to recycle their glass and broken pieces if not in their own companies, at least transferred to other glass makers.

In our trip to Wissmach glass today we saw how they make sheet glass and it was a difficult process to make complete sheets without any "breaks" in them.  The good thing about glass companies is that they can reuse a lot of their imperfections and scrap. 

But what happens to the glass that they do not use?  That's where Gabbert Cullet comes into play.  They get cullet (broken discarded glass) and distribute it out to many different glass manufacturers making it a much smaller impact of glass being thrown away.

In households however, the process of recycling glass is miniscule.  The amount of places in most places that exist for glass recycling in very few and far between making it difficult and inconvenient for most families or households today.

Just how would recycling benefit our environments? 

What types of glass do you have in your household?  Do you or your family recycle? 

Do you know of a recycling facility in your area?


Go to the following page:

http://igsfederal.com/glass-life-cycle.html

Take the data listed and create a table or graph to visually show the comparisons between glass used, glass recycled and glass thrown in the trash. 

Whey do you think the number of land fills has fallen so drastically since 1978?


Here is a blog from a city in Alabama.  What do you think the author of this blog is trying to tell the community?

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2010/05/huntsville_residents_your_recy.html

What do they write as the pros to recycling glass?

What cons can you infer with recycling glass?  Divide you paper into two columns and compare the pros and cons.  Does one greatly outdo the other?

Do you believe a recycling plan in your community would be beneficial?  What are some ideas you could come up with for the use of broken and discarded glass?