Glass recycling brings to mind putting your empty jars into a container and setting it out at the curb for recycling pickup. But have you ever thought about what could be involved in commercial glass recycling? Here’s a great project from Green Coast to illustrate what’s involved.
The challenge:
The client – a commercial skylight company in Coquitlam – needed to clean out their yard of obsolete and broken panes of glass to make way for new inventory AND they wanted all the glass recycled. Needless to say, we were up for the challenge!
Photo gallery:
Recycled that:
Green Coast recycled 5.9 tonnes (that’s 13,000 lbs) of plate glass during this project! We took the commercial glass for recycling to Blue Planet Recycling where all glass in BC is processed and repurposed into new products.
One of the biggest challenges involved in this commercial glass recycling project was safety due to the obvious safety challenges of working with glass. It was also critical to ensure that there was zero contamination of the glass which required removing all labeling and stickers on each piece of glass. This sounds simple but in practice, it was something else, especially when we had hundreds of planes of glass to deal with.
Notable quotes:
Glass recycled by Blue Planet Recycling goes into three main products: sand blasting media, reflective paint for roads and insulation manufacturing. The biggest challenge we face is controlling quality. All three applications require glass to be kept very clean from collection through processing and to final destination. We recycle only post-industrial plate glass (no post-consumer bottles or already recycled content). Working with Green Coast Rubbish has been great as they understand the need for cleanliness and quality by providing clean bins and controlling what goes into them.
– Sebastian van Wollen, Blue Planet Recycling
This was an interesting assignment for us with some unique challenges, but one that our team handled flawlessly. I am always happy when the outcome of a project equates to the material we haul being 100% recycled and repurposed locally. It simply doesn’t get any better than that!
– Eamonn Duignan, President & CEO, Green Coast Rubbish
