Glass waste is increasing annually throughout the country. The storage of such garbage in the traditional way is becoming increasingly inefficient and unsafe occupation. In household garbage, among the fragments, you can find a large number of toxic substances that harm the environment. The problem of glass recycling in the 21st century has become more relevant than ever.
The volumes of rubbish stored at landfills are huge, and garbage recycling or waste disposal plants in Russia are clearly not enough. However, most economists are sure: cullet recycling and glass recycling are a very profitable and promising activity.
The problem of waste disposal
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is the main source of adverse effects on humans and the environment. Landfills poison the soil, lakes, air, affect the population of animals. Effective waste management in Russia today does not exist.
It is necessary to solve the problem of waste, since garbage processing would solve two problems at once:
- Environmental Disaster Prevention.
- Saving resources.
More and more often in Russia and abroad the question arises of processing glass. Indeed, the decomposition of such material in the soil lasts several hundred years.
Glass properties
Centuries ago, people valued glass only for its optical properties. Thanks to the efforts of scientists, people learned about other properties of this amazing material. For example, it can refract, reflect and scatter light rays. All these characteristics can be changed by introducing changes in the chemical composition during the production process.
Another property of glass is its fragility. Trying to get rid of this shortcoming, experts created bulletproof and shockproof modifications of the material. It is also known that glass retains heat well and conducts current poorly.
Another useful property of glass is that it does not pass water, and is also not afraid of the effects of many types of alkalis and acids. It can be easily cut, ground, grinded and polished with special tools. Due to its composition, this material can be easily molded at temperatures above 1000 degrees Celsius, turning ordinary glass into a vase or a bizarre Christmas tree toy.
Glass production
Glass used for industrial purposes is made from quartz sand. Lime, chalk and soda are added to it. The resulting composition is thoroughly mixed and sent to the oven. When the mixture is heated to a temperature exceeding 1100 degrees Celsius, it begins to melt, as a result of which carbon dioxide escapes from it. After melting the glass melt is allowed to cool to 600 degrees Celsius. Slow cooling can not be allowed, otherwise the composition crystallizes. To obtain glass in factories, they use rapid cooling technology. The glass melt hardens but remains amorphous. After complete cooling, glass is obtained.
In the manufacture of glass containers and flat glass, glass melting technology is used. At modern enterprises, production waste (battle) is actively used, from which excellent recyclables are obtained. Moreover, such a recycling process does not require additional costs. Its use, on the contrary, reduces the temperature of melting glass, accelerates the production process. This ultimately leads to cheaper products.
Glass production stages
The composition of glass includes components that can be recycled. This helps not only to preserve the environment, but also to get decent benefits from the use of recycled cullet. To open a glass processing plant, you need to know that the production of recycled materials from battle is divided into two stages:
- Preparation of a mixture of charge and battle, which forms a glass at a high heating temperature.
- Melting material to obtain glass containers.
The composition of the mixture contains such components as sand, soda, dolomite and potash. To bleach the glass using selenium, sodium sulfate or saltpeter. The uniformity of the glass depends on the quality of the material used in the production. To obtain the molten mass, heating of the billet material in the furnace to 1480 degrees Celsius is necessary.
Battle processing process
The main goal of glass processing is to create new materials with high decorative and operational qualities from waste waste. Processing of recyclables leads to significant savings in material and labor costs.
Glass breakage waste consists mainly of industrial glass and glass containers, which were previously used to store food and drinks.
The adoption of new laws in Russia
Russia is developing industry standards and federal laws regarding packaging and packaging waste. They are aimed at solving a number of problems:
- financing the collection, sorting and disposal of waste;
- conducting state accounting of the amount of waste;
- development of production aimed at the collection and processing of cullet;
- definition of responsibility of the manufacturer who is engaged in the production of packaging;
- calculation of potential income from recycling and recycling.
Cullet building material
Many people are wondering: where to pass the glass break and how to use it in the future? One of the main directions of using recyclables is the production of decorative and finishing materials, the development and improvement of building materials, which are necessary for flooring and wall cladding of buildings.
For the first time in our country, glass silica fume was created on the basis of cullet. This is a new type of facing material. To obtain it, the cullet was ground to a state of powder in a special apparatus - a glass crusher. Metal, ceramic fractions, as well as labels are separated during the transformation of glass break into glass granulate. The heating temperature during technological processes was about 1000 degrees Celsius.
Widely used in construction and carpet-mosaic tiles, which are made in various color variations. They are used for interior decoration. This material is made from cullet.
Increasing requirements for thermal protection of buildings, pipes and refrigeration units forces scientists to develop new technological materials. Today, a large amount of glass breakage is added to thermal insulation materials. Such a solution not only improves the quality of the product by an order of magnitude, but also reduces the cost of its final cost.
Bricks of brand 100 are significantly inferior in their basic properties to other bricks that are made with the addition of broken glass. The addition of such recyclables allows to reduce porosity, water absorption, and also such an additive increases the mechanical strength of the product.
Demand for recyclables
Glass waste can be used as raw material for high-quality products. Over the past few years, many products have been made in our country and abroad that will be useful in national economies. The scope of recycled glass breakage is constantly expanding.
In developed countries, almost all garbage is recycled to produce new goods. Thanks to this approach, they have no problems with the storage of solid waste in landfills. The waste management business brings huge profits, given the fact that the material for production is always in abundance and costs negligible. There are several directions in this segment. For example, many factories specialize in glass recycling.
Many cities are condescending to the idea of opening a garbage processing production, and given that there is no competition in Russia in this area of business, if successful, you can get a very decent profit. In order to open a successful glass recycling business, a novice entrepreneur should know how to process solid waste in factories.
How is recycling
It seems to many people that recycling glass to turn it into a recyclable material is a very expensive and complex process. However, practice shows that this is far from the case. The most difficult question in this matter is how to organize the reception of cullet in large quantities.
To open a factory that processes cullet, you should prepare a site for the collection of garbage. Purchase glass recycling machines. In this case, all norms and regulations adopted in the country should be taken into account. The following conditions must be met:
- The remoteness of the plant from the settlements, since the work of the enterprise is associated with increased noise.
- A good road for the delivery of raw materials by road.
- The territory of the enterprise should be surrounded by a high fence.
Raw material sorting
Before disposing of the glass that arrived at the factory, it must be divided into parts depending on the color and grade of material. Also, the glass cullet must be washed to get rid of impurities and foreign objects (stones, metals, etc.). After cleaning, the glass melting process begins.
Classification
In order to recycle glass, you should know that such a material is divided into several types, depending on the purpose, composition and properties:
- First of all, glass differs in appearance or shape. Such a product can be flat, sheet and profile. Also, construction plants produce fiberglass and glass blocks.
- According to the production method, glass is divided into rolled, pressed and drawn. Also, many enterprises produce glass wool and foam glass.
- Depending on their properties, this material is divided into lighting, color, reinforced, bulletproof, as well as heat and noise insulation.
- Depending on the application, there are window, tempered and polished glass.
Equipment for work
As a rule, recyclables are sorted manually by several employees of the enterprise. To make this process as fast as possible, it is necessary to equip the plant with a conveyor. Glass melting requires special furnaces.
Since the new equipment is very expensive, a businessman may consider purchasing equipment from abroad. It is important to remember that such equipment is maintainable, and spare parts for it could be ordered and delivered in a short time.
Production location
The best location for the MSW processing facility is the area near the large landfill. It should be borne in mind that the nearest residential facility should be at least 600 meters from production.
In order to organize the uninterrupted supply of material for the operation of the plant, it is necessary to conclude an agreement with utilities that deal with garbage collection from cities. If funds allow, you can buy your own fleet, consisting of garbage trucks.
As storage, a room with a total area of 100 square meters is suitable. To equip the workshop, you need a room of 500 square meters.
When calculating the starting capital for organizing a business, it is necessary to take into account the cost of purchasing raw materials for processing and the cost of salaries for production workers.
If you correctly develop a business plan for creating and running a business, then the company will bring a very substantial income, the payback comes after six months.
