Glass Recycling

this program is made possible by support from the California Department of Conservation and the partnering cities of upland Montclair and Ontario California did you know that every month we throw enough bottles and jars away to fill up a giant skyscraper and here's the crazy thing all this glass is completely recycled did you know that glass is 100% recyclable even when it's broken oops hi there I'm Joel green and welcome to curiosity quest goes green the show that explores leave the viewer curious about today our crust setter comes to us from bill and Rancho Cucamonga California and bill wrote dear Joel I'm curious if I recycle glass bottle how is it made into something else is it melted or do they make it into other bottles will bill because of you on today's episode of seek you booze green we're going to explore the process of recycling glass let's get started like somebody can get hurt on this alright so I'm out here strategic materials with Sal how you doing this out good good how are you good well thanks for having us out here today so tell us where do you get all the glass drum well this glass basically comes in from recycling centers from around redemption center back Center Southern California they bring the glass into us they come over our scales you can see here we have trucks that come in daily to come in over our scales okay now we start back in the recycling center so you know people like myself I can go and drop off all my glass bottles what about like curbside you have use any of this on curbside yes as a matter of fact we do have some curbside we have about 6,000 5,500 tons a month it comes in from first sight program that sounds like a lot it is a lot that's quite a bit Wow when you say comes in what happened to go to a transfer station they clean out whatever they're going to pull out of it fiber per instance aluminum whatever they can bigger stuff the glass most what is should be a high percentage glass comes to us we process it here we pull out as much glass as we can we take out the contaminants for instance metals non-ferrous metal ceramic vision where major things that materials that can't really be cent and final in the final material to our customers okay now glass is as I understand it a hundred percent recyclable correct is that why it's important to take out all these other materials well yes it's important to take out the other materials because in for instance container manufacturers and their furnaces the ceramic melts at a higher um it has a higher melting point than glass does or even virgin glass materials so basically what happens if we don't take those contaminants out they come out when molten in the molten glass and they come out of an imperfection or they clog can wreak havoc on their processing please watch one fact fun fact did you know that one glass bottle can power light bulb for four hours four hours into you that glass is recyclable over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over to just over keep it well okay all right I'm done with the segment boils that mean I'm curious do you know what glass is made of Cavalier a brick sent little shiny things paper and wood and link all of the above shiny material or rocks there's some type of rock or something maybe the can sand and electrons and fire well basically we have sand so - limestone and recycled the last color how many different colors of glass do you recycle here well basically we have the amber glass we have Flint or clear glass what is blit rock used to make help make fires and like out in the wilderness and stuff Joey piece and leg something that you get out of the dryer something that you use in the dishwasher anything that's clear it's considered Flint glass I'm sorry so the clear was like the now this is a green why is this a green bottle this is because of the label underneath it's it's clear oh okay so you're going to take the label off yes processing will actually take the label off sorry I broke that man get that a lot right alright so Flint is clear Brown is amber it looks Brown exactly okay and then Green is green is green I like that yeah yeah I'm green alright and then what other colors then we have the mix the kerbside mix how is glass recycled I'm pretty sure they melted melting it down I guess and let's click and think of right now um it's crushed up and then I get seated down to help make other things somebody just has a ball and they just break it on the ground then we can just pick that up to help to help the vironment it's taken to recycling bin where all the cans and everything goes do they burn it again the make it form up a glob like so that they can reform it into something else right not I know at home I have a recycle bin and Prabhat all that one bit but there's still a lot of contaminants in here that's why we run it through a service rep across as to make sure that we get the contaminants out from the fiber to the fine plastics there's going to be a certain level of it okay now you able to get enough out to bring it back down to just last guess we are all right to do that so he's done will you put this in a similar what yes as matter of fact it will go in this hopper here this processor here is dedicated to the mix the processing Hix this side mix so works coming out right here if I move over here what's coming out this is basically trash oh wait we do get some glasses really little the most part is plastic paper paper is they're not supposed to be throwing those in our cycle bitter that's correct No so once the glasses out of there go inside with everything inside actually there were a series of screens and also a series of that actually will take contaminants out those sea contaminants take it out okay now before it gets to the crusher it's going through all these belts right that's it so these belts are pulling off the paper as you mentioned pulling out all the metals what else non-ferrous recycle the bottle caps or recycle pasta caps really ten and it is actually the truckers break it up and actually loosens up the label which makes it easier to extract the label what is call it something you'd probably find under the couch rock a glass again quick note friend something that you use for the dryer bit like a rock can be a technical sounds like something you find in your intestines but I'm not sure something related to cold I think from the bottle so from the time it's dumped here in the yard where the skip loader picks it up how long after the skip loader picks it up in the hopper we get : I would say probably within the course Wow you'll get bullets and we usually run anywhere from the processors have the ability to run anywhere from 18 to 35 times an hour all right now what do you do what they call it while the say that once it's in this form here which is been inspected already we have a quality assurance program where we check it every 15 minutes we get a count on any type of contaminant that we find then based on our power if we feel comfortable with the Paladin rinses of yeah if you don't find anything it's great we find water tool that we look at is okay over what that period and then we release the product this product here now is released ready to go to the Container alright and ready to be introduced into the furnace okay I see that guy who's got a rape we're gonna do with that ring well he's moving the glass around because yeah he's moving the glass around and spread it out make sure he get the better view of what's coming off the belt okay whoa whoa files going under him now yes so it's fun I do that he gave me some done the hard part's getting up there Wow I got this I got it Oh God and how many times can you recycle glass a lot like is it like about five or something may attain twice you know I've never thought about it but I'm gonna say maybe five or six times as many time as you need to hey Pete hangs as many times as you want to few times do you know that glass is recyclable over and over and over and over and over I'm getting good at this over again come on well you guys come on you just slow me up okay I'm not two enzyme over and over and you get the picture right so be sure to recycle your glass bottles don't try to hurt me with them just recycle these bottles all right so we followed all of the colon over here to a plant called oh I I'm here with the plant manager Pete hit how you doing Joel nice to meet you welcome to Illinois Los Angeles like to give you some records and safety gear giving me up already absolutely all right there's a hat and there's some safety glasses more glasses I'm on it all right hearing protections in the pockets and an official why I'm not used to being geared up like this right when I get to a place there well welcome we're very glad to have you here all right cool so tell us a little bit about oh I the loans Illinois is that the world's premier and largest producer of beverage and food classes last word bottles and here in a Vernon facility here in Los Angeles we lots of different customers what can be made at recycled glass I guess different like art I guess like cars benches and these things have people to use around some houses I've seen funny kinds of jewelry all kinds of things I guess paper more graphs slash products glass statue so now we're going to take all of this recycled glass and we're going to turn into new bottles and new beverage containers and want correct up about 50% of our back Schmitt match mixture to make a glass come from college so we make blend and we have amber the remainder is sand so - in limestone and 50 percent so without recycled bottles you would have to use more resources absolutely absolutely and in fact actually we use less energy to convert call it recycle the glass to new glass so that sounds like to me is we need to be recycling more bottles absolutely absolutely all right so now what's the process that this will go through all from here 50 percent of the batch mix as I said will be the collet we'll go to the batch house and from the batch house into our furnace from the furnace into the actual machine that will form the glass models through our process inspection Alliance superintendent will be happy to take you through the process and that show you some really neat and interesting stuff all right so the coats and they call it crusher and I'm here with Mark I do a Marla Joel haul you're doing hey what makes for beating me up here so it's in the cola crusher what's the next step next step is the cola gets mixed with soda ash limestone and silica sand sent over here on a conveying system is introduced into the furnace where it starts its melting process and turns into a liquid goes from solid to liquid and this is where all begins right here all right so a recycle bottle the coal it is then added with a few more ingredients to make another bottle 50% 50% : and then 50 percent new ingredients but sand - and limestone limestone all right so once it's mixed together that's when you said it comes over here and goes in the furnace correct this cornice is war I mean my arm is pretty hot right how hot is it it's super hot it's 2700 degrees that's really hot when you think about normally on a hot day it's a hundred and five degrees outside 27 5 degrees 2700 Wow so when it comes in here it's solid its own and when does it become liquid probably halfway through the furnace process you have a very long furnace right here my tongue gets the other end it comes to a liquid okay so I see you have big gloves in your hands or we're not going into furnace right absolutely now we're not going into furnace before take a look inside Wow now what are you holding up right there this is a dark lens to protect your eyes so you can look inside you can see what's going on inside the furnace you can see the batch files in there if you get up here a little bit closer you can actually see the raw material melting and you can see it bubbling almost like a volcano in there and then you can see the fire coming out from the side of the harness down in the glass it's incredible because is hard for me to look now it must be okay to look I see that all right so it's dark can't really see anything through it oh yeah okay that cuts down the glare I get in here yes oh yeah put gloves on because it's a really really hot right there there we go Wow I'm getting a sunburn standing here okay so I see a well looks like piles of glass or piles of sand and brick now is that a flame that's coming out that is a very big flame all the yellow that I see are just flames shooting across oxygen oxygen oxygen flame oh my goodness big piles in there Wow you want to see what come up here see to mark how long will it take for the glass to go through the furnace it will take about thirty six hour eternal from when it starts right here introduced into the furnace told smelvin until it gets out to make a bottle Wow 36 hours or six hours turn over time oh my goodness all right now how long is this furnace it's really long I love the tech term really long all right and uh we're going to fall into the other end huh yes all right so let's go follow okay how does the glass get from one side of the furnace to the other side well Joel basically runs you have your matches introduced on this under the forest you have to wait behind it the forces the other glass on a slightly decline approach is a glad glass goes into a channel called refined so the solid is on this side and as it's being melt it is kind of oozing down and why do we have these of these fans behind us these fans are right here to keep some side of the furnace cool to get hot spots in the furnace we use put them up here for extra cooling alright so if that the animal isn't here we wouldn't be able to stand here Wiggly would be pretty warm here because I feel a difference in elevation like if I go down it's not as if I come on up here like at your height this hot is warm it was warm and hot let's forget the warm stuff all right so we're going to follow down the other end right yes we are all right cool the markets at the end of the really long furnace and it's all liquefied now right that is cuts it out where is it going at this point when it gets the end of the first right there it goes through a small channel called the throat and it branches off into a gradual cool-down place called the refiner and it goes into a forest formed into a gob now this the row where it's channeling it up I see a lot of flames coming out of this at the top of this thing right here what is this cooling it well it's a controlled heat removal process from the beginning so if it starts off with 2700 degrees before it gets into a gob cools down to about 2100 degrees before we get to a God he said yes what is a gaba like something like a glob of glue something out of Willy Wonka Everlasting Gobstopper something gathered together something you drink out of Pisa rubber a big love of peanut butter a Gambas gaba glasses there's specified weight that will be made into a bottle it's like a big blob of something right I got gobs of glass that's my tech care about it now I'm seeing these things come out and looks like a roller coaster each one's going down a roller coaster what's happening what's happening there the glasses coming out of the oarfish ring and there's a set of shears just like we use shears for something else to cut there's big scissors and are cutting the glass off in the gobs and gobs go down through the god distributor down through the funnels down through a gob distributors taking the designated suction of the machine let's push them to a bottle okay so that's really hot right there right it's extremely hot extremely you can't touch it at all so you can all right so now once it and how fast from that point so it becomes a bottle less than five seconds we get them moving quick very well all right so then it will go into a glass mold basically yes all right now this glopitt well now people now is a bottle and it how many bottles of them is it making an hour a day how many bottles you make it we make around three million bottles a day and with different colors we made flint in amber what which is clear and amber is the darker now you have obviously there's a lot of inspections along the way those bottles off the line a lot of times you look for visual defects and busters we do the same thing right here right here nice texture lfyou shoes new hole reflected off the ocean now obviously what will you look at what we look at right here so they'll go you'll check them all the dimensions for the thread dimension of the dimension for a leaner for the bearing surface thickness for all around let's check individual imperfections on the glass box so if you determine that this isn't good go back in the car in the car it was actually anything wrong with this machine going to do all these checks that you just described how will they get rid of a bottle you see this fun of it I swear looks for shadows so we're able to check everything each bottle will go through so we saw the bottle as it started the glass bottles have started recycled it we shredded it we broke it up and then you rebuilt the bottle and then we're done basically it we start off in the beginning process was a solid form of 50% collet in the raw materials it was heated up to 2700 degrees the blast was gradually cooled off throughout the entire process is made into gobs it was loaded in the scene it was pressed into a glass bottle it was loaded into the lair for gradual heat removal take the stress out of the bottle the annealing process and it was what through selecting Department for quality inspector this bottle was individually inspected for called with defects system here for process the way was transferred on all the conveyor belts across the magic tunnel into the low building area here we are and here I don't even have it outside after all that quite a long ways around this plan and then this will be a 100% recycle all understand all you have to do is take this bottle and recycle it to start the whole process all over exactly 21 20 fact fun fact you know that the modern glass bottle will take up to four thousand years city compose four thousand years it's even longer if it's in a landfill I want to thank everyone out here at O I is strategic materials for teaching us how they can recycle glass 100 percent and I especially want to thank you Bill for sending us on today's curiosity quest now if you're wondering about something let us hear from you go to KBC org click on the curiosity quest link and simply tell me what you're curious about and it could be you that sends us on our next green quest now remember this is our planet and of course it's our responsibility to take care of it so I'm curious have you gone green I'm Joel Green I'll see you next time alright guys don't try this at home I am wearing my safety gear here goes okay no more 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Channel: Chula Vista Clean & Green

Views: 335,298

Rating: 4.4119582 out of 5

Keywords: Recycling (Industry), Glass Recycling, Glass (Visual Art Medium)

Id: ZHEY3LkBHU8

Length: 25min 57sec (1557 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 16 2015