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Sand mining is causing environmental degradation around the world, to river beds, agricultural lands, etc. Taking that out of the equation could be a net benefi
by h0l0cube 6y ago
Sand mining is causing environmental degradation around the world, to river beds, agricultural lands, etc. Taking that out of the equation could be a net benefit. Especially if it's at least as permanent as glass.
- gbrown 6y agoAt least glass is basically perfectly recyclable though.
- h0l0cube 6y agoI think both creating and recycling glass requires intense heat, and so a large energy input. This process seems to very low energy requirements.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- sp332 6y agoSure but you could also just make a window out of plastic.
- Dylan16807 6y agoHow much does it cost to get sand out of a safe area? I bet it's cheaper than making this.
- Animats 6y agoGrinding up rocks to make sand works quite well. There are many videos of sand-making plants on Youtube and Vimeo. The trick to this is designing crushers which work mostly by grinding rocks against rocks, not rocks against metal. Wear is much reduced.
- Retric 6y agoSand isn’t a uniform thing, for glass you can use wind blown sand from deserts because it’s melted. Which in practical terms is an unlimited resource as Si makes up 28% of the earths crust which is only behind Oxygen. But, for extending beaches and most other uses you want textured sand that clumps together. As such people don’t mine river beds for large scale glassmaking as that sand is more valuable.
- h0l0cube 6y agoIf it only diverts mining from near-lifeless deserts, that might be more acceptable. All deserts do have life though. But what's the impact of cutting down trees + mining for some fraction of petroleum vs mining for glass? I would guess that it requires a rigorous and impartial analysis of the environmental impact.
- varjag 6y agoThere is very little danger of any world's deserts becoming sandless (or even making a dent in the amount of sand) due to the needs of glass manufacture.
- wegs 6y agoI'm not even sure I'd call it a "danger." The Sahara creeping south is a danger. If we could make a dent in the amount of sand, it'd be a pretty amazing thing.
- h0l0cube 6y agoI was hinting that deserts aren't devoid of life, so it's still destroying some environment and habitat, even if it's one that humans have little value for. But, OTOH, felling trees is likely much worse.
- sporkologist 6y agoTake sand out, put a bunch of highly processed synthetic polymers in. Sounds good for the environment.
- h0l0cube 6y agoIf it proves to be more durable than glass, requires less energy, and also offsets demand for mining, it could be a net gain. I don't have understanding of the supply chain, and the environmental impacts of glass manufacturing to know. Recycling could be difficult (once again, I don't have the domain knowledge), but that's only an issue if it needs replacing.
- crispycrafter2 6y agoThe energy to melt and process glass is for sure the big limiter here.
- azalemeth 6y agoThen again, most polymerised epoxy is basically not recyclable -- once it has set, it's set. The most you could do to this would be to burn it.
- baq 6y agowindows glass isn't easily recyclable either. it can be repurposed... > However, while window glass may not be recycled easily, there are many options for keeping it out of the landfill. For example, it can be melted and re-manufactured into fiberglass, incorporated into asphalt, and even combined into reflective yellow and white road paints. Broken glass can be combined with concrete to create terrazzo flooring and countertops. Some companies even use old glass for landscaping materials and other decorative applications. ...but that's nowhere near a recycled window.
- Taniwha 6y agoOf you could toss the carbon you don't want into old coal mines (or just land fill) - why would you burn it and cause more global warming, we should be tossing our used paper into landfill, recycling it reduces the demand for growing more trees (and fixing more CO2
- varjag 6y agoRight, let's conserve sand by extracting oil.