What *REALLY* happens to 'Recycled' Glass?! - (you might be surprised)

I remember when the milkman delivered milk in glass bottles and after drinking the milk we put the empties out for him to pick up on the next delivery. The empty bottles were then cleaned thoroughly before refilling for the next customer. A much more environmentaly process and much more efficient.

My family ran a garbage/recycling business for 35 years. Glass is infinitely recycleable, yet brings the least amount of money to the recycler. I’d take crushed glass to our buyer at roughly 40,000 lbs a clip. What they paid us, and what it actually cost us to transport was a vastly different figure. We only handled glass out of moral pronciples, to be frankly honest. Starting in 2010, we no longer accepted glass of any kind, as it was piling up our facility, because it was worthless and cost quite a bit of money to deal with, as we were a privately owned enterprise, we had no government help with any of our programs. We closed for good in 2019, and the main loss of income for us was single stream recycling. Unless you are a government run facility, single stream recycling more often than not, ends up in the landfill. Ask me how I know. You should mention the extreme cost in overhead to run a facility like this everyday. Consider how much raw material you’d need to bring in to justify running the equipment, paying employees, insurance, registration, workman’s comp, etc. Recycling only works when you have subsidized help from the government. I like to think we did our best for well over 30 years at helping the planet live a little longer by recycling, but as the generations come and go, people are lazier and looking for the easiest most convienent way to dump their problems on someone else. Single stream recycling is killing the planet and filling landfills. Edit: Whoa! Thanks for the likes! I ask everyone to be more conscientious when recycling. Separate your recycleable material and take it to a proper facility if you can! We must do our part, we’ve already scarred the earth enough.

As someone who worked with cutting glass into window panes, wear hearing protection if you're near breaking glass for a prolonged period of time (not at home, those instances are rare enough). That high pitch can be very damaging, especially because the cling is so short lived that it doesn't register as pain in the ear, akin to gunshots or firecrackers

What struck me the most is the lack of safety measures; like I'd have imagined the air gets thick with small glass particles that can be harmful to your lungs

I want to take a moment and appreciate all the engineers that makes these things possible in each industry. This is extraordinary!

Is it just me, or does he DEFINITELY need to do more how it's made videos?

That seems like a terrible place to be without a respirator.

They market crushed glass as an alternative to sand in abrasive blasting. It's safer because it contains "amorphous" silica, as opposed to the "free silica" found in sand, which can cause a lung disease called silicosis.

So neat! I would love to see more tours like this. I had no idea that fiberglass insulation came from glass bottles, and they use renewable energy.

I work for one of these facilities and a driver came in today; said I gotta watch the video. He was right, you did a great job! Thank you for coming out and sharing what we do with so many and spreading awareness.

Great video. Even with curbside recycling, it amazes me how many people won’t recycle. It takes zero effort.

Approved. I am seeing where you have sought and crafted the elements to have such sweet resolutions in energy and environmental stability. It is beautiful.

I am 71 years old. I was raised on a farm. As a child, we took Coke bottles to the grocery store for a deposit. We kept and reused glass jars. There were no plastic containers or grocery bags. We didn't have a whole lot of glass jars, because we had a house garden and put up all the vegetables we needed each fall. Things have changed. 🤔

Is it safe to be in that facility without mask, because of the glass dust. Nice video by the way.

Excellent Video. The quality of many such independent YouTube creators not only rivals but surpasses those old PBS and BBC documentaries. This is top notch! 👍👍👍👍

I have binge watched HOURS of How It's Made. I would love more videos of this kind, on ANY subject. Well done!

Your voice has always been so calming <3 Good work man, greetings from Sweden.

some places require sorting the glass by colours beforehand, which allows purer use of especially white glass, which needs quite a high purity to be used for similar usage again. I think it depends very much on where you are living and recycling the glass.

As an environmental engineering student, seeing these kinds of facilities makes me happy. Thank you

What happens to all my cardboard boxes? Looks like I need to be a bit better at recycling my glass.