so today we're going to find out what
really happens to recycled glass i think
it's a bit different than what you might
think plus at the end of the video we're
gonna talk about team c's we can't let
linus tech tips out donate jerry
let's get started
[Applause]
[Music]
so glass is a pretty cool material it is
inert which means it doesn't react with
whatever is inside of it but that also
means that it doesn't decompose in
landfills it can take up to a million
years for one of these things to break
down but the good news is they are also
infinitely recyclable which is what
we're going to learn about today how
glass is recycled and what we can use it
for right now i'm at momentum recycling
up here in salt lake city where they
handle glass in all of its forms so we
can turn it into something new here in
the united states there's a lot of
different ways to recycle glass some
places have curbside pickup other places
have a big dumpster where you need to
take the glass and drop it off in order
for it to be collected in one convenient
spot using the glass collet that comes
out of this recycling center uses forty
percent less energy when creating new
bottles what is cullet you ask let me
show you
we're going to start off with all of the
glass dumped in one spot this is the
brown glass the blue glass the clear
glass even plate glass
it's nice we don't have to pre-sort it
the sorting comes later
the materials taken by a giant front
loader and dumped into a blue hopper
which funnels all the glass down onto a
conveyor belt
the conveyor belt takes the glass up to
a crusher the nice thing is that even
broken glass can be recycled because as
we know glass is glass and glass breaks
the crusher helps break the bottles down
into usable pieces
and can even be recycled when the labels
and bottle caps are still in place
[Music]
after the crusher it goes into a
revolving trommel screen this machine
helps separate the glass and the
contaminants
you know when you smash a glass bottle
it breaks into small pieces but if you
smash a plastic bottle it just flattens
this machine can differentiate between
the two and separate them into different
piles
so as you can see this is a giant
tumbler and the holes on this side are
smaller than the holes on this side so
the particulate falls out and the larger
stuff falls here
now that we have the broken glass
separated into three separate parts the
tractor comes back picks up the glass
and drops it into a new hopper we still
have the metal bottle cast and a few
other contaminants inside the broken
glass and this machine takes care of
that with giant magnets at the top it
can pull the metals up and away from the
glass shards
the magnet will pull out all ferrous
metals and inject them into a collection
bin where they can also be recycled
after the magnets the glass goes into
something called a fluidized bed dryer
the air is heated to 190 degrees
fahrenheit and at that temperature the
sugars and bacteria are burned and the
label glue is loosened this is the dryer
that gets rid of all those labels
it's nice that all of these processes
don't have to be done by hand after the
dryer there is another conveyor belt
which takes the broken glass and up to
this point all of the glass is still
together the different colors when it
reaches the top of the conveyor belt it
falls a waterfall of glass
and the optical sorter uses lasers and
puffs of air to sort the glass into
different areas and sort particles up to
3 8 of an inch pretty small the reason
we do this is because the glass has
different makeups the optical sorter
behind me can shoot out 20 000 pieces of
brown glass and ceramic every single
minute
every time one of the lights blings it's
a puff of air blowing away a piece of
ceramic or brown glass
after the optical sorter we come over
here to a hammer mill which pulverizes
the glass
and brings it to this guy which is the
sorter
the polarized glass then gets dropped in
a giant bin
so it's super loud in there and i'm
pretty sure my camera is covered in
glass but basically if there's any
pieces of glass that are still too big
after the sorter they go back to the
pulverizer and repeat the process until
it's super fine material the superfine
particulate or collet as they call it is
pumped up into these giant silos and
then trucked off in semis to either make
new glass bottles or
something that you're probably
not expecting
the pulverized glass dust is the basic
ingredient in making new glass it uses
40 percent less energy and as a bonus
reduce the amount of raw materials that
need to be mined out of the earth owens
corning is another facility located
close by me right here in utah they take
advantage of these benefits to turn the
dust from my broken bottles into another
glass product
blow in insulation for homes and
buildings and yes the corning in owens
corning is the same corning that makes
gorilla glass but instead of gorillas
this time it's pro pink pink panther
insulation let's see how that glass
bottle dust has turned into the pink
insulation that keeps houses warm it's a
rather fascinating process first the
semi-truck containing that cullet or
powdered recycled glass
pulls up to the giant silo at owens
corning and pumps its entire load of
glass bits into the massive silos at the
top of the building each day a sifter
proportions the different ingredients
used for the fiberglass insulation into
a holding hopper above the furnace 55 of
which is that recycled glass we saw
earlier the holding hopper lets the
glass slowly trickle into the giant
furnace where it's heated to nearly 3000
degrees
the furnace here at owens corning is
super interesting since it doesn't use
any fossil fuels to operate
instead of burning coal to run their
melter owens corning melts their glass
entirely with 100 percent renewable wind
energy
i had no idea this was even possible
until now but how does electricity melt
the glass
with super massive electrodes quick
pause for a second the electrodes inside
of the giant furnace are actually these
guys right here super super heavy with
the massive copper end on the back this
is what a brand new one looks like but
after a period of time inside of the
furnace this is what they end up as
because the glass inside as we know is a
level six on most scale of hardness and
deteriorates or corrodes the electrode
while it's inside of there the glass is
just circulating like a giant melting
pot
all the electrodes inside the furnace
are creating electric arcs from tip to
tip kind of like iron man's arc reactor
and just zapping electricity from point
to point to keep that glass molten hot
and how much electricity does that take
a glass melter of this size uses
anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 megawatts of
electricity
the white crust on the surface of the
molten glass is used to help regulate
the temperature of that red-hot liquid
underneath
like a blanket
it's interesting that when the glass is
in its solid state it does not conduct
electricity it is an insulator as we
know since we're currently making
insulation but when the glass is molted
or in its liquid state it does conduct
electricity
the white smoke you saw coming out of
the tower earlier is just water vapor
that's coming from the cooling and air
purification system the red and blue
tube running around the outside of the
melter helps keep the electrodes and the
sidewalls cool after the glass has been
melted it flows like a red molten river
through these brick pathways to what we
call the fiberizers we're still in the
upper levels of the factory at the
moment using gravity to drop the 2000
degree molten glass onto spinners which
fling the glass into super fine fibrous
threads
kinda like cotton candy
except for not
we did however arrive just in time for
some scheduled maintenance anytime a
fiberizer needs parts replaced
they channel the molten glass away from
the unit where it gets sent off to
shatter in cold water and become like
the little pieces of cola we saw earlier
since glass can be infinitely recycled
they don't waste any of it here
so when the glass is diverted away from
those cotton candy machines it ends up
being brought back out and this broken
glass can be reused in the system as
many times as they need to
nothing's going to waste
and when the fiberizer is done having
parts replaced they can start dripping
glass down into the top again to
continue its production of forbidden
cotton candy the fiber that comes out of
these fiberizers is white and feels as
soft as cotton it's safe to touch with
my bare hands what's interesting about
the fiber though is that it's
bio-soluble meaning that if you do
accidentally breathe in the fibers they
won't cause damage to your lungs
this same white fluff is even used for
the composite fibers in space suits
this yellow conveyor belt you see here
is sitting right below the fiberizers
collecting the soft bed of white
cloud-like glass and transports it down
to the hammer mill kind of like we saw
at the recycling center except for
instead of breaking up glass shards this
is breaking up the mata fluff into much
smaller blowable pieces of insulating
material finally down here at the bottom
on the main level is where we add the
trademarked pink pigment so everyone can
tell the difference between the pro pink
pink panther brand insulation and the
other stuff
finally robotic arms collect the pink
insulation into bags
and load it onto pallets for easy
shipping everywhere across the country
it's crazy to think that the 15 bottles
i was holding at the beginning of this
video
now have turned into just one of these
bags of insulation and the nice part is
that it takes 40 percent less energy to
turn recycled glass into something new
than it does to make glass from scratch
it's a win for the planet on multiple
levels i know that i personally will
make more of an effort going forward
into the future to recycle my glass
since it's way better off being reused
and turn into something new like bottles
or insulation to keep homes comfortable
both of which are way better options
than spending the next million years in
a landfill
not all trash is garbage as you've seen
some of it can be recycled into brand
new stuff
so taking steps to reduce the amount of
garbage we produce is important but
equally important is to take the garbage
out
of places it doesn't belong which is
where team sees comes in team sees has
successfully funded the removal of 30
million pounds of trash from the oceans
which is a very impressive and
successful endeavor but with 7 billion
people on the planet that trash just
keeps on coming i noticed that linus
tech tips removed 25 069 pounds of trash
from the ocean and i think we can outdo
them i say we because this is all made
possible since you guys watch my videos
so with team jerryrig's 25
690 pounds of trash removed that puts us
right on top of linus
that donation link is still up at
teamsees.org you can still donate if you
haven't already but most importantly
just make sure you're not throwing away
things that are still useful and can be
turned into something new like glass
plastics or metals all of that is still
very valuable huge thanks to momentum
recycling and owens corning for their
factory tours they're doing their part
to reduce waste for sure and let me know
down in the comments what else you would
like to see recycled i think making
videos like this is pretty fun
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for watching i'll see you around