Material: Recycled Glass Issue: Container manufacturing is the primary market for recycled glass cullet
in the United States.
Although all container manufacturers use some
recycled cullet in glass batches, there is a lack
of uniform specifications for both recycled glass
and furnace-ready cullet.
This can represent a significant market barrier
to processors of recycled glass seeking to access
the primary market.
Often processors design systems to meet the
needs of specific manufacturers. This can leave processors vulnerable to changes
in the consumption patterns of a single manufacturer. Industry-wide quality requirements are needed
to ensure that suppliers have equal access to container
manufacturing markets. Further, specifications written at the corporate
level are subject to interpretation at the plant level. Plant engineers may have expectations of cullet
that are more or less stringent than the written specifications. As a result, the quality assurance procedures
undertaken by those managers may tend to be more subjective
than specifications suggest. Best Practice: The next page contains a specification derived from
existing specifications and interviews with processors
and users. It may serve to educate those unfamiliar with
cullet specifications and as a starting point for
development of uniform specifications. Implementation: Incipient trading in recycled
glass on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) may help
to open an industry-wide discussion for the establishment
of uniform specifications. Whether or not CBOT trading succeeds, that
discussion should continue within the glass manufacturing
industry. Benefits: The existence of well-defined industry specifications
can potentially be a benefit to both processors and
users of furnace-ready cullet.
Processors can design their systems knowing
that they are not subject to the whims of a single
buyer. Buyers
can purchase from multiple sources with confidence
that processors understand industry quality standards. Application Sites: Glass beneficiation facilities, Glass container
manufacturing facilities, Material recovery facilities Contact: For more information about
this Best Practice, contact CWC, mailto:info@cwc.org. References: Glass Specifications Memorandum,
New
York State Office of Recycling Market Development,
Garrett Dolan Memorandum dated March 19, 1993. Methods for Sampling and Testing
Glass Cullet, ReTAP, Clean Washington Center, 1996. Written Cullet
Specifications:
Anchor Glass Container, Owens-Brockway, Miller Brewing
Company - New York Bottle Company Division, and Foster
Forbes Glass.
Specification
for Container Manufacturing
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