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> fresh and clean sand The thing many people don't know is that not all sands are equal. For example desert sand is not usable for cement or other building pu
by dathinab 6y ago
> fresh and clean sand
The thing many people don't know is that not all sands are equal.
For example desert sand is not usable for cement or other building purpose. We are currently running out of sand usable for it and are scrapping it from the sea ground or islands, both doing MAJOR environmental damage.
For glass the context is a bit different the sand needed for glass production seems to be readily available, at least in the EU (source German Wikipedia article about Quarzsand, no english version).
But producing (bottle) glass from recycling glass needs much less energy then producing it from sand.
Furthermore recycling glass bottles isn't too hard to do, especially if you produce green glass.
In Germany in average 60% of glass used to produce a bottle is recycled, for green bottles its up to 95% for mineral wool it's up to 80%. (German Wikipedia).
(As a side note only bottles go in the glass recycling bin, class from e.g. a broken window does not belong there!)
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoThe regular sand article in English Wikipedia talks about types of sand early on in the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoAs someone who can look down from above into the recycling trucks I don't know what to make of the fact that they empty the separate collecting containers for green, brown and white glass into the back of the truck. Without any separation at all. Once I asked a driver why that is, and he answered: "I'm just the driver, no clue." The trucks are just regular "Muldenkipper / Dump Truck" which have a little crane behind the drivers cab, crane hooks into their tops, lifts them up over the back, does something to the top hook, shakes a little, bottom opens up, glass falling down, empty container back to the curb. I mean... "Wat soll dat? / WTF?!"
- TeMPOraL 6y agoThe answer I've always heard: because recycling facilities can't trust regular people to sort their trash right (and for good reason), so it gets dumped into one pile on the truck and then resorted properly at the facility. Regardless whether that's the reason, I think making people sort their trash is dumb anyway, and the more requirements you give (sort into 7 piles, must be clean of grease, etc.) the dumber it gets. The effort discourages a good chunk of the population, while the rest end up wasting so much water inefficiently washing their trash in their sinks.