5 ms·
I wonder how recyclable this is? If it’s actually acrylic and glass mixed together that sounds tricky to separate later.. maybe?
by xt00 5y ago
I wonder how recyclable this is? If it’s actually acrylic and glass mixed together that sounds tricky to separate later.. maybe?
- T-A 5y agoAcrylic is much lighter than glass (something like 1-1.2 g/cm^3 vs 2.2-2.5) so I would expect them to separate if melted.
- mensetmanusman 5y agoSolvent separation would be possible.
- dragontamer 5y ago1. Shove it into a furnace until the glass melts. 2. This also burns off almost every other impurity (aka: the acrylic). That's the thing about glass and metals for recycling. You "recycle" them almost identically to the mining process, except its way cheaper to "mine" partially refined glass rather than throwing sand into the furnace. "Purifying" real-world sand into high-quality glass is simply going to be more difficult than using ready-made high quality glass and melting it back down: even if there are "impurities" like acrylic on it (still probably has fewer impurities as real-world sand anyway).
- code_duck 5y agoI'm not sure about the various high-tech glasses, but for artistic and industrial glass such as lead or soda lime, manufacture involves use of a large percentage of recycled glass (cullet).