GREEN Clean Up – Broken Flat Window Glass

Broken Flat Window Glass to collect and recycle.
Special collecting issues. Every little bit counts !
Glass can be Recycled endlessly and Other Uses!

Ukraine, manmade or Natural Disasters,
use GREEN Recovery Methods !

Ukraine is progressing in the Circular Economy movement!
Sustainability, Closing-the-loop
>> So many are already working on the New Green Ukraine!

In this post:

…Remember-bottom is a list of other posts on WASTE WEALTH

GREEN Clean Up

The Green Dream to Rebuild a Sustainable Ukraine from the Rubble of War 

LETTER FROM UKRAINE

Sept. 2022 – …On March 1, a mere six days after the invasion began, the 31-year-old Alexander Shevchenko posted a message on Facebook:  “As we all support the army financially our Zvidsy Agency opens additional (front)… – preparation to rebuild our country…Contact me…in case you are interested to support our idea, our country, our new chapter.”

The non-profit he has since founded, ReStart Ukraine, is one of a handful of initiatives where green-minded Ukrainians are sketching long-term reconstruction blueprints with a focus on sustainability. 

…Pre-war Ukraine, despite its economy’s reliance on pollution-intensive sectors like iron and steel, had made steady progress toward a green energy transition.

…The price tag for a total rebuilding of the nation could be astronomical — but so could the potential rewards, both for Ukraine and neighboring European Union,

…..ReStart Ukraine’s plan proposes reusing timber, plastic and concrete debris from bombed-out structures. Some of the concrete, after being pulverized, could be reused as fill material in new concrete. 

…Building a greener Ukraine is not just the dream of a handful of Ukrainian planners. It’s a project that has the attention of the highest-level officials in Europe.

…In a 40-page “rapid response” Blueprint for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, heavyweights of the profession, including the Ukrainian national Tymofiy Mylovanov, Beatrice Weder di Mauro and Barry Eichengreen, made many references to the 1948 European recovery plan. Days later, Eichengreen published an op-ed whose title, “Shaping a Marshall Plan for Ukraine,” decisively drove home the point.

…For Andriy Andrusevych, a senior policy expert at Resource & Analysis Center “Society and Environment,” a Lviv-based think tank, the jury is still out as to whether the plan will deliver on Zelenskyy’s political agenda of seizing the moment to align the country with the EU and its low-carbon policies. The National Council for the Recovery of Ukraine from the Consequences of the War, a body established by the president, is still finalizing the draft plan.

…Even the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol is getting the special treatment of being reimagined with a green and low-carbon future via a reconstruction project dubbed Re: Mariupol. 

Oleg Drozdov has launched a Ukrainian-majority coalition of 50 experts, called ro3kvit, to help re-think the future of cities and better rebuild a post-war Ukraine. He later told me that he sees the reconstruction as “a good time for Ukrainian experts to learn by doing.” 

….Addressing a gathering on post-war reconstruction, Oleksandr Sienkevych, the mayor of the riverside city of Mykolayiv, spoke plainly: The 10,000 broken windows in his town meant proper redevelopment will have to wait, he said.

What is so important about
Flat Window glass?

Throwing away Glass is throwing away a valuable Resource!
Recycling is not a choice, but a necessity. Due to the depletion of the earth’s raw materials it is worth separating and collecting all materials that can be reused.
This also applies to waste window / sheet/flat glass.

Glass can be recycled infinitely without losing any of its properties….
Recycling glass does not degrade it.
Re-manufacturing it can be carbon-free.
So why are many countries still burying glass in a landfill?
Every little bit that can be reused, counts!

So Let’s recycle All that Flat Glass!

Cullet – The broken glass from your windows, is called Cullet when it goes for re-manufacturing

FLAT TO FLAT
Demonstration of an innovative
fine crushing method for glass and
alternative cullet in flat glass production

From 2013-2017
LIFE12 ENV/BE/000214

Home

Worldwide, and as vital as it is, glass manufacturing produces at least 86 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. But most of this can be eliminated when recycled glass is used and clean technologies are used to turn glass manufacturing into a mostly carbon-free process.

ALL glass should be recycled
What needs to happen is for countries to make glass recycling mandatory….As with most forms of recycling, some cautions apply. The type of glass used to make windows — known as flat glass — cannot be re-manufactures if it contain impurities, unlike glass used in many other applications. So it’s not possible to melt down jam jars to get a window pane. But flat-glass cullet can be used to make more flat glass….Increasing the collection alone will automatically create greater incentives for glass to be recycled.

THE FURNACES FOR THE FUTURE: THE GLASS INDUSTRY’S SHARED AMBITION FOR A LOW-CARBON FUTURE
A demonstration project called Furnace for the Future, run by FEVE, heats glass using electricity instead of natural gas to use recycled glass cullet. If the electricity source were fully decarbonized / clean, it would mean that the entire process of glass-making would effectively be carbon-free.

The construction industry generates many thousands of tons of waste glass every year. Sustainable demolition and renovation techniques mean that more and more used sheet glass is now being separated at source for recycling. Europe already mandates that 70% of waste building and construction materials are recycled.

GREEN Clean Up

Q: Why doesn’t my community accept Window glass for recycling?

Recycling window glass was supposed to be impossible. It’s possible!

Recycling, like in most businesses, shows higher demand for certain materials than others. Glass, while in demand, weighs a lot, is rigid and harder to ship.  Window glass is often laminated or has been treated to make it tougher – and so it needs to be processed separately from other glass types when it is re-melted. Is the glass tinted or not? Is it safety glass or tempered glass? All these different subsets of window glass must be separated for re-manufacturing.

Glass from construction and demolition sites may be accepted for crushing, cleaning and processing to use in construction.

How Do I Dispose of
a Broken Window or 2 or 3 or ……?

No doubt you know how you are going to collect the broken window glass, but just in case there is something useful in these directions, you might read them once……..

1. It may be that the provider of your new window replacement can provide you with adequate information including where to take the broken window glass.
2. Do your research, if there’s a Building Materials Reuse Center or a similar organization in your area that accepts recycled materials from residential properties, use it.
3. Take note that most window glass recyclers can only recycle the glass panes from windows. The frames and banding must be removed. Residual adhesive or caulking does not need to be removed.
4. If you want to recycle glass correctly, gather up a few supplies including a hammer, box with a lid, a piece of thick cloth, strong tape, paper, and a thick red marker.
5. Take proper precautions: shoes, gloves, every precaution when handling broken glass: eye protection, and thick-soled shoes.
6. Make sure you keep pets away from broken glass. You may want to shut them in another room while you clean up.
7. Glass shards can be very sharp. They are also often very tiny and may have scattered throughout the room. Work very carefully.
8. Once your feet and hands are protected, carefully pick up all the glass pieces and put them in the box. Remember, glass shards can be very tiny, so you’ll need to look carefully around the entire area where the breakage occurred. You can look for smaller pieces of glass by shining a flashlight. The glass pieces will reflect the light, allowing you to see them more easily.
9. If there are larger pieces of glass that are too big to fit into the cardboard box, safely break them into smaller pieces. To do this, carefully wrap any larger piece of glass in an old towel or cloth, tap on it lightly with a hammer to break the glass into pieces.
10. Breaking the glass into smaller pieces is easier to dispose of. Place the glass down flat on the ground and cover the entire pane with an old blanket or several old towels to keep the shards in place before using a hammer or shovel to break the pane. If you can also put a blanket that you don’t mind throwing away beneath the glass, then you’ll have a much easier time cleaning up with fewer tiny shards to worry about. Alternatively, and if it fits, put the glass into a garbage can and break it there. When breaking glass, always be sure to wear gloves and goggles or other eye protection.
11. Label the box of flat glass, to alert others of its contents, such as “Danger: Broken Flat Glass” on the top and sides of the box. For the refuse collectors who handle the box, they will know to do so carefully.
12. Vacuum or mop the whole room thoroughly. Do not use a broom or brush, as little shards can get stuck in the bristles and transfer back onto the floor next time you use it, unless you are careful to clean it after this use.
13. Blot the area with a soft piece of bread.  Even a vacuum can miss some of the truly tiny pieces that can cut or irritate skin. For an easy way to capture those pieces of “glass dust”, get a piece of soft bread and blot it face down across the area. Other household items can work well in this case, too. A halved potato, packing or duct tape, or a lint roller also works well. Or some damp paper towel over the whole area. The glass will stick to it. Then just pop what you used on top of the rest of the glass that you’ve cleaned up.
14. Tape the box shut, and label it with ‘Caution: Broken Flat Glass’.
15. As discussed above it has to be collected separate from bottles! If you know where Flat Glass is recycled, and you Put it Next to a Recycling Bin: on the side so that when the garbage team comes to collect it, they can see that it contains broken glass and can dispose of it properly.
16. OR, if you’re getting new windows, you can see if your new suppliers/installers will take the broken window glass to properly recycle it!
17. Does Ukraine already have a system for doing this? Yes, At least one!

A company like this:

Order Glass Removal / Pickup from Utilita company

Компанія «Утиліта» керується принципом – «Відходи як джерело сировинних матеріалів – гарантія майбутнього» і впевнено дотримується обраної стратегії розвитку, спрямованої на максимальне задоволення потреб своїх партнерів. Ми створили цілісну систему поводження з вторинним склом.

філії: м. Новомосковськ, м. Київ, м. Одеса, м. Кам’янське, м. Павлоград, м. Рівне, м. Мелітополь
Ми також працюємо по всій Україні: Дніпро, Запоріжжя, Кривий Ріг, Полтава, Кіровоград, Кременчук, Полтава, Бердянськ, Херсон, Миколаїв, Хмельницький, Івано–Франківськ, Дубно, Львів, Луцьк, Тернопіль, Харків, Суми.

Purchase of Broken sheet glass – used for the production of windows………

Requirements for accepting broken Sheet/Flat glass that we purchase:

• It is not allowed to contain stones, ceramics, scrap metal, wood, plastic, earth, sand, erklez and/or other garbage or impurities in broken glass;
• The presence of frames, reinforced, hardened, armored, automotive glass , triplex is not allowed in sheet broken glass.
• The thickness of sheet glass should not exceed 5 mm .

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OR you might be interested in a project like this:

Now we are asking our customers and local tradespeople to give us the glass they have that has come to the end of its useful life (post-consumer glass). We crush the glass into “cullet” and return it, in bulk, to the Glass company which will make new window glass and who will pay us for the glass cullet. … Local schools and charities across our community that focus on improving the environment can apply to us for a donation from the money we receive for the cullet, which could amount to £50,000 per year. Money used to create nature reserves, or gardens – even allotments in schools – anything that improves the local environment.

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GREEN Clean Up

If your community does not have a Flat Glass recycler, you might consider crushing the glass, anyway, for transport. Most Glass recyclers, will be happy you did so. OR using it yourself!

HOW A GLASS CRUSHER WORKS Crushed FLAT Glass has many uses:

1. as either base or surface coat (when mixed with asphalt) for roadways
2. as an additive to clay for brick-making
3. to blend with other materials for moisture drainage; it can also be used in this way to filter water
4. for use in making spun glass fiberglass filaments for insulation
5. for “foam glass” – used for insulating and moisture resistance, similar to other insulation; it can also be used for oil spill cleanup
   
   
   
6. to make “glasscrete”, a cement-based composite which contains glass
7. for use in hydroponics, as a growing medium for soil-less gardening
8. as a landfill cover that helps shorten the life of a landfill
9. in pressed glass, for tableware, giftware, and the like
10. in sand traps on golf courses
11. to make glass mosaic tiles and synthetic marble
12. as utility bedding and back fill, particularly around underground pipelines and cables—it is easier to work with than sand when wet
13. a base for unpaved roads when mixed with soft clay soil
14. an underlay for walking trails
15. in dirt parking lots to keep dust down—it is even safe enough to walk on barefoot!
16. for various kinds of filtration

Flat glass crusher in action:

What is a glass crusher? >> A glass crusher pulverizes window glass, glass bottles, and other glass products to a 2″- crushed glass product. Impact crushers are most commonly used to crush glass because of the higher pulverization and finer end product.
RubberMaster In Ukraine: TOW BRISE Ukraine, Viktor Kuznetsov, Kiew, +380 (44) 392 36 22, vk.brisegroup@gmail.com

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Temporary Replacement Windows, after collecting the Broken glass…..

eco friendly – https://www.insulate-ukraine.org/

A plastic window that takes 15 minutes to build, transforms the lives of families in Ukraine. Repair weather, bullet and bomb-damaged windows and insulate your home. Designed by a Cambridge PhD student who has paused his biotechnology studies to concentrate on the project. Already hundreds of windows have already been installed across Ukraine.

The concept uses ‘triple-glazed’ polyethylene to protect against the cold, costs around £12 per square meter of window, and can be built at home in quarter of an hour from basic materials. The window design uses polyethylene, PVC piping, pipe insulation and duct tape, to create four layers of insulation. Harry – who has paused his Cambridge studies in biotechnology at Hughes Hall to concentrate on the Insulating Ukraine project – said the solution, similar to triple glazing, insulates better than double glazed windows and is shatterproof.

“Our windows needed to be inexpensive, let light in, keep cold out, and be simple for local people to install themselves,” said Harry. “They are built from some of the most abundant building materials on the planet. Plus, we’re using stabilised polyethylene, which doesn’t degrade under sunlight. All of the window parts can be recycled and used for something else in a few years’ time. There’s pretty much no wastage.”

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14 low-tech ways to keep your house warm over the winter

1. Use aluminum foil.
2. Thick or quilted curtains are a good way to prevent losing heat from windows.
3. But let the sunlight in.
4. Double glazing is heat-efficient but it’s relatively costly.
5. Stop heat being lost up the chimney.
6. Watch out for mini-drafts.
7. DIY draft excluders 
8. Clear your radiators.
9. Put a shelf above the radiator.
10. Shut up unused rooms.
11. Cover bare floorboards.
12. Insulate your whole house professionally.
13. Inefficient loft hatches.
14. Setting timers on your heaters is important.

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GREEN Clean Up – Glass recycling is only part of it.

More posts on WASTE: Our Assurance of future Resources

Waste; Our Assurance of future Resources
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Hard-To-Recycle Waste – What Do You Have? What Are You Looking For?
Wasterush Tools! Right To The Point!
Harvesting Waste Ideas. Waste Rushes? NOW!
Mycelium In Industry – Ancient And New
– series of 15 posts on Mycelium in Industry
Industrial Zone – Closed-Loop Networking
Urban Mining ! – More Important Than Ever
Critical Minerals & Rare Elements! ….. COLOSSAL WASTE RUSH

Municiple Waste
Useful Green WASTE Business Ideas That Can Scale To Any Size You Can Use.
Anaerobic Digestion In Full Swing – #1 Waste To Energy?
CNG, LNG, RNG Fuelling Stations – #2 Waste To Energy
#3 Municipal Solid Waste – MSW To BioFuel? Yes!
#1 Leaky Toilets Are Everyones Business!
– series of 7 posts on water,sanitation,toilets

Plastic
Waste Plastic Upcycle Businesses – Opportunities, Opportunities!
– series of 5+ posts on waste plastic businesses
Jobs! With The Ocean Cleanup INTERCEPTOR™ Business!, +1000+ ECO Jobs!
COVID 19 Waste – Pick It Up Off The Street!

Printing Industry
Eco-Printing & Packaging EQUIPMENT

Thoses posts about wastes that need present action
Too Much Methane !
Wipes – Human Behavior & False Advertising
Job Vacancies In Green Companies < More Now !

You will find more subjects on my blogs front page. My blog is full of ideas for sustainable business! (look at the bottom of each post. There are lots of links to more information…)

(Remember our disclaimer: Any company or website mentioned herein are only examples and should NOT be taken as recommendations or endorsements, unless specifically notated.)

Time for Action!
Ask those questions that are on your mind!
That you have been asking yourself!
How to join the Circular Economy and eco-concerns that you might have are the motive for my blog. Tell me what you are looking for.  I will certainly help you look for answers!