RE: [greenyes] RE: Env Benefits of Recycling Glass

["Christopher Cloutier" <ccloutier@no.address>]

Justin,

Thanks for bringing up the gravel substitute. Too often that is dismissed.
However, to clarify one thing you wrote, there is not an "endless supply of
minable sand and gravel".

Here in MN there is an acute gravel shortage. The best and most productive
gravel pits that yielded Class 5 gravel, the class of gravel used in
roadbase, have been paved over and turned into housing development (ah, the
irony). Also, there are "rock poor" counties that have no minable class 5
gravel and have to import it to make roadbase.

In these instances, glass is a value-added. It reduces costs, makes an
otherwise unusable Class 3 aggregate into a Class 5 and according to
imperical but non-scientific research, makes a better product too.

Regards,
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: Justin Stockdale [mailto:jstockdale@no.address]
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 4:06 PM
To: greenyes@no.address
Subject: [greenyes] RE: Env Benefits of Recycling Glass

Another thought/rant to ponder;
Like many municipalities, we are faced with difficult decisions regarding
glass. Paper contamination making collections problematic, color sorting
requirements make bottle markets hard to reach, etc. In the face of so many
challenges should we throw up our hands and say goodbye to glass?
I think not. However it will require taking different approaches than the
ideal bottle to bottle loop. In Santa Fe, we have chosen to continue glass
collection at the curb, creating a two bin program....and in the process had
to face down the age old question of what to do with mixed cullet. The
interim answer has been road construction. Certainly not the best use, but
it keeps glass in the program and allows us to explore new alternative
uses/processes to hopefully return to the bottle to bottle loop.

I would guess that all of us on this list remember the good old days of
refillables, and remember this to be one of the first nationwide recycling
opportunities (at least I do?) hence, everyone thinks glass is the one
material that ought to be recycled...as it was the one thing they have
always recycled.

What I am getting at is we can manage glass as a gravel substitute cost
effectively and so there is no reason to give up on it. Sure, glass in
asphalt is not the highest and best use, and yes there is an endless supply
of minable sand and gravel...but why bury a bottle in a landfill if you
don't have to? And the best thing is putting glass under asphalt means it
will be "reused" for decades, if not millennia, and you only had to collect
it once!

And, just to humor myself....we still have an Executive Director position
open for Santa Fe's only landfill. +/- 700 TPD hole with an open door to
create just about any diversion program you can think of.

Thanks for the time...
Justin Stockdale
jstockdale@no.address