Glass recycling and development prospects

Glass is a kind of commonly used material in contemporary life of mankind, it can make all sorts of appliance, household utensils and flat glass.Nowadays, there are more and more wastes. In order to make sustainable use of resources,  waste glass and  products can be collected to turn harm into benefit and turn waste into treasure. At present, there are several types of glass products recycling: 

1. As a flux for casting

Broken glass can be used as a flux for the melting of cast steel and cast copper alloy to cover the melt and prevent oxidation.

2. Transformation utilization

Transformational utilization is a recycling method that urgently needs to be developed. In the future, there will be many new value-added technologies for transformational utilization. After the pre-treated broken glass is processed into small glass particles, it can be used for the following purposes:

(1) Glass fragments are taken as a combination of pavement. Several years of experiments in the United States and Canada have proved that using glass fragments as road fillers has the advantages of reducing vehicle lateral slip accidents, appropriate reflection of light, good road wear, fast snow melting and suitable for use in places with low temperatures.

(2) Mix crushed glass with building materials to make building prefabricated parts, building bricks and other building products. It has been proved by practice that the size accuracy and strength of the products with organic matter as cementing agent are higher and the production cost is lower.

(3) Smashed glass is used to make building surface decorations, reflector materials, arts and crafts and clothing accessories with good visual effect.

(4) The mixture of glass and plastic wastes and building materials can be made into synthetic building products.

3.Recycle

After the glass is pretreated, the glass container and glass fiber are fabricated.

4. Material reuse

 Recycled broken glass is used as an additive to glass products because adding it in the right amount helps the glass to melt at a lower temperature.

5. Reuse

At present, the reuse scope of glass bottle packaging is mainly low value and large quantity of glass bottles. Such as beer bottles, soda bottles, soy sauce bottles, vinegar bottles and some cans and so on.

The comprehensive recycling of waste glass has important economic, environmental and social benefits. In order to reduce environmental pollution and save energy, China is gradually carrying out the work of recycling waste glass. The state shall formulate relevant rules and regulations, regulate civil behavior, and draw upon foreign advanced experience when formulating industrial development plans, such as the requirement that the proportion of the total output of the products produced by using off-site broken glass shall be accounted for.

Government related supporting policies to promote reducing trash, waste glass recovery dedicated boxes are placed in residential area, which is responsible for the management and recycling free of charge. The environmental protection department helps professional recycling enterprises to transport the recycled waste glass to the disposal plant, and the freight will be settled according to the market price, which not only reduces the burden of the professional enterprises to establish their own transport fleet, but also gives full play to the professional transport capacity of environmental protection and lets the market play its role.