The #1 ingredient in glass isn't sand, it's previously manufactured glass. You can pretend it's sand, but it's not. The economics of all this is very geographi

The #1 ingredient in glass isn't sand, it's previously manufactured glass. You can pretend it's sand, but it's not. The economics of all this is very geographically dependent. In many parts of the country, the transport cost isn't a big deal because there are glass manufacturers who use cullet nearby. It's not clearly superior to transport glass to a landfill instead of a place that can recycle it. Glass recycling isn't economical enough to reuse brown bottles in Montana? Understandable - so it's not collected. Saying that glass recycling is economically and ecologically unsustainable everywhere is a bold statement.