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I don't understand why it's better to not recycle glass. Yes transporting used glass is costly, but isn't collecting and transporting sand even more costly? And
by FooBarWidget 8y ago
I don't understand why it's better to not recycle glass. Yes transporting used glass is costly, but isn't collecting and transporting sand even more costly? And while we won't run out of sand, good sand is limited. Or can you use any sort of sand to produce glass instead of a specific type of sand? Doesn't refining sand into glass take additional energy compared to melting existing glass?
- justinator 8y agoFor one truck load, how much sand can you carry per volume, vs. old glass bottles? For the latter, aren't you mostly transporting air? You don't want to BREAK the glass bottles, since they still need to be sorted, and cleaned.
- hutzlibu 8y agoDo you know what you are talking about? I am far from an expert, but here in germany glas gets recycled in 3 bins, brown, green, white - and get usually smashed by people throwing those bottles in. So not much air. And cleaned they still can get (and should)
- justinator 8y agoGermany is quite ahead of the curve when it comes to recycling. Here in Boulder, CO, USA, recycling goes only into one bin. It then needs to get sorted at the recycling center. We're told not to smash bottles. Glass has to first be sorted by color.
- justinator 8y agoAlso we have nothing at all like the Pfand system. I pay for the privilege to have recycling taken away, not the other way around. What Germany has is awesome.
- Animats 8y agoIt's easier to sort broken glass cullet than bottles.[1] The actual sorting step scans each small piece of glass cullet individually, and air jets kick different types into different outlets. This is very fast - 30 metric tons an hour. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkILrp11Jq0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkILrp11Jq0