There are several types of glass waste that arise from our production. 90% of it is returned back to glass manufacturer and used again as glass cullet. These are mainly products evaluated as NOK pieces (majority due to scratches or bubbles).
But what about the remaining 10%? Those are glass rod ends that are broken into small pieces due to fast cooling in cold water. These rod ends can sometimes contain iron. Sometimes not. And therefore, it is a lot more complicated to find possibilities for additional use. We worked really hard during the last years in order to reduce this waste. Thanks to better sorting and cooperation with our supplier we managed to increase amount of glass that can be returned to the manufacturer and used as cullet for new production. Image below shows the sorted glass cullet that is beeing returned.
There is still around 5% of our glass waste, where we intensively search for a secondary use. We have several open projects and we will keep you informed.
It is essential to keep in mind that what we call glass waste is actually a raw material for somebody else.