The glass collector claims it is the first in the world to successfully remove pyro-ceramics (Pyrex) from glass material, following the installation of new equipment this month.
Problem
Pyrex has traditionally posed a problem for recyclers because it closely resembles packaging glass, but its melting point is twice as high. At the glass re-processing plant this can create dangerous weak points in new containers. Faulty bottles are detected but cannot be recycled again as the problem will recur, so they must be landfilled. This wastes re-usable glass.
A spokesman for Berrymans confirmed: “For years, pyro-ceramics have been a major constraint on the amount of recycled glass you can use in furnaces. Now we can remove practically all the ceramic from the finished cullet so there is no problem in the furnaces.”
And unlike sorting equipment that accidentally rejected re-usable container glass, the company was confident that “every bit of raw cullet that comes in will be converted into finished cullet,” he added.
Detection
The detection machines use X-rays to identify fragments of pyro-ceramic material and high pressure air jets then blow these pieces into reject bins. The German firm that made both this machinery and the colour enhancement equipment installed in the plant last October (see letsrecycle.com story) has not been named, but Berrymans revealed that the total cost of the equipment was 1.5 million.
Rockware Glass, which uses Berrymans finished cullet to make new containers, welcomed the investment. Rockware director of logistics Malcolm Vernon said: “We can now move forward with confidence in meeting our strategic objective to more than double the usage of recycled glass to over 400,000 tonnes.”
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