Abstract

The properties of glass provide attributes for many commercial products. As some of these products reach the end of their useful life and are discarded, there is the opportunity to have the material recycled into other useful products. This alternative is preferred over having the material enter a municipal waste stream for landfill disposal. Glass can be remelted and refabricated over and over again without any deterioration of the material properties. Limitations for recycling of glass involve the level of contamination from other categories or colors of glass, as well as from a variety of nonglass materials. For successful recycling, glass must be processed to meet the requirements of the glass manufacturing industry.