| Recycling is simply the process of taking a | | | | Mix |
| substance or a product at the end of its | | | | Melt |
| functional existence and reutilizing a part or all of it | | | | Mold |
| to produce another item for use. People in today's | | | | Cool |
| world are becoming more and more aware of | | | | The first course of action is to collect, sort by |
| how important it is to recycle what we use. The | | | | color and clean the glass. The next step is to |
| responsibility of good stewardship is on our | | | | crush it into small gravel-like pieces, which is called |
| shoulders and to do any less would be considered | | | | "cullet" in the industry. The cullet is then mixed |
| wasteful and irresponsible. | | | | with "virgin" materials, such as soda ash, limestone |
| There are many items that can be recovered and | | | | and silica sand. At this point the entire mixture is |
| reused again and again, but one of the most | | | | placed in a furnace which is heated to 2,700 |
| popular materials to be recycled is glass. It has | | | | degrees Fahrenheit and melted down to a molten |
| very pure ingredients and the processing | | | | state. This prepares it for the next stage, which is |
| turnaround time is quite fast when compared to | | | | molding. The molten glass is then poured into |
| other materials. This material has so many uses | | | | molds and cooled slowly so it will retain strength |
| that it can be found in everything from pavement | | | | and not be brittle. |
| to countertops and numerous other products. The | | | | Some companies only process to the point of |
| primary use is for bottles or containers in one | | | | cullet production and will ship this out to other |
| form or another. An interesting fact is that glass | | | | manufacturers and they will use the cullet in their |
| can be recycled indefinitely and with no | | | | own product creations. There is great demand for |
| deterioration in quality, yet only about one quarter | | | | cullet because it costs much less than producing |
| of glass is produced from reprocessed material. | | | | glass from raw materials. |
| The recycling process is quite simple, when | | | | The downside to glass is it never decomposes, |
| broken into the main elements They are: | | | | which means it should never be placed in landfills. |
| Collect | | | | Unwanted glass can be recycled through curbside |
| Sort | | | | recyclable programs and collection bins at local |
| Clean | | | | recycling centers. |
| Crush | | | | |