What they say:

“GLASSeco Limited operates from a 10,000sq ft eco factory in Greater London which diverts 5 tonnes of glass every month from the waste-stream.  The new site has been purposely-designed with a tiny carbon footprint: it uses minimal electricity, all water is recycled and, most importantly, we don’t create any waste.

GLASSeco is a genuinely low-carbon product, proudly manufactured in the UK, created entirely from waste materials that were destined for landfill.”

If you like to see how things are made, GLASSeco has a film here for you.

What I say:

It’s great that they can achieve such a high level of recycled glass content, but what’s the other 5+%?  My literature says the binder is “non-emitting epoxy resin binder.”  So, would that be petrochemical based, then?   

Where is all the glass from?  How much is post consumer vs. industrial recycled content?  GLASSeco also uses TV/computer screen glass through NuLifeGlass which is very cool because it means greater opportunity for such electronics to be recycled.  (Unfortunately such sources mean there’s a slight risk of lead leaching, although the levels are very low…see technical specs for details.)

It seems that it is manufactured in London which, for London consumers, means almost no transportation miles – yeah!

Do they offer an end-of-life reclamation programme?  If not, presumably the product would be land-filled (if no other use is found for it)?

I’ll do more on granite at some point in the future, but here I’ll just second GLASSeco’s reference to the labor situation in granite quarries in India in this BBC report.

The final analysis: I’m with Kevin McCloud in loving this material.

Photo from http://www.glasseco.co.uk.

The entry on Bottle Alley Glass has got me thinking about glass recycling. 

Many moons ago I was travelling in Amsterdam and toured the Heineken brewery.  I remember hearing about how, with a little cleaning out, they could reuse the bottles something like 17 times (I’ve probably grossly over-exaggerated that figure, but I can’t find anything to verify it and that’s the number that sticks in my head, so please let me know if you know something different).  When at university (or college as Americans say) in Minnesota, we would buy cases of beer and then return all the bottles to get a deposit from the liquor store. The bottles would then be reused by the manufacturer.  How did we get so far away from that? Does anyone still do it?

A few weeks ago on Grand Designs (I do love that show), they spotlighted a couple making an earth ship house (made from old tires/tyres and dirt) which included glass bottles embedded into the wall.  Kevin gave them a lot of grief about that…it was more hippie than grand design, but even so, as it does everywhere, the glass added some nice sparkle to the space.

Taken to the extreme, in one of the many internet tangents I get myself on, I came across this Buddhist temple in Thailand made entirely of glass bottles…

Photo by Cheryl Kempton.

There was one interesting find.  Bottle Alley Glass offers glass products (tiles, worktops, lighting, etc) “made totally from glass recovered from household and commercial waste.”   

It seems that it has taken a while for recycled glass production to get to the point of producing sheet glass that can be used on worktops/countertops, so I find this to be a very exciting development.  The product is beautiful and has many application possibilities.

What they say:

“Glass makes up around 7% of the average household dustbin and in 2001 over 2.5 million tonnes of this material was landfilled…. Glass is unique in that it can be recycled indefinitely without loss of quality.…Making glass creates gas and CO2, but recycling glass into new products has several environmental benefits:

• Energy saving
• Lower emissions
• Reduced landfill
• Less quarrying

If recycled glass is used to make new bottle and jars, the energy needed in the furnace is greatly reduced. After accounting for the transport and processing needed, 315kg of CO2 is saved per tonne of glass melted.  Recycling two bottles saves enough energy to boil water for five cups of tea.”

What I wonder:

This product has some strong eco credentials.  However, to have a better understanding of the product’s life cycle, some more information would be helpful.  For example, what transportation is involved in sourcing the raw materials (recycled glass)?  The offices are in the UK (East Sussex).  Is the manufacturing plant in the same location?  I suspect it is, which would make this a local product (to London and England).  It could be even more eco if green energy is used; maybe it is but I couldn’t find anything on their website about that.  Finally, what happens when the product has finished its life? It presumably can’t be recycled with household recycling waste.  Will the company take back the glass to be reused?