| INFO | NAME: | Glass cullet | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CATEGORY | CATEGORY: | Manufacturing wastes | ||||||||||||||||||||
| RADIO_BUTTON_UNCHECKED | SECTOR: | Ceramics & glass | ||||||||||||||||||||
| VOLCANO | UK TOTAL: | 11,700 tonnes (data) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| FLAG | SITES: | 52 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MAP | REGION: | North West, North East | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Widgets | TYPE: | Recyclable production waste | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | DESCRIPTION: | Glass waste from the production of container and float glass | ||||||||||||||||||||
| PIN | EWC CODES: | 10 01 12 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| SCIENCE | TYPICAL COMPOSITION: |
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| TENANCY | MINEROLOGY: | Amorphous | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stream | APPEARANCE: | Crushed / broken glass | ||||||||||||||||||||
| LINEAR_SCALE | PARTICLE SIZE: | Various | ||||||||||||||||||||
| WYSIWYG | NOTES: | |||||||||||||||||||||
More than 90% of the world’s glass production is based on soda-lime-silica glass (Lebullenger and Mear, 2019). This is a combination of silica sand, sodium carbonate (“soda”) and calcium carbonate (“lime”) alongside other minerals, produced by melting together in a batch furnace at around 1575ºC to form the molten glass, before being formed, annealed and cooled. Glass can, in theory, be infinitely recycled with no loss of quality. Broken or discarded glass can be cleaned, crushed into cullet, re-melted and re-formed. As such, glass cullet wastes arising from glass production are typically re-used internally by producers, providing they can be kept sufficiently free of contamination. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Visibility | FURTHER READING: | (Butler and Hooper, 2019) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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