There is so much to say about glass, because there are so many different kinds. The common way of treating glass bottles is to smash them up and melt the glass back into bottles. I consider this insane on many levels. Primarily because it is so wasteful while masquerading as conserving. Glass bottles are my go to example of how to reuse function rather than materials. Bottles are containers, and containers contain. That is their function. When attempting reuse, you always want to reuse their function, not their materials. Since the function is to contain, you refill bottles, you don’t break them, if you are truly interested in reuse. We need to make refilling easy and convenient, not difficult and occasional as it is today. That’s the short report.

A report on automotive glass appeared in Chemical and Engineering News recently. Read article. Since this kind of glass has special properties, not entirely shared with window or bottle glass, it deserves some special consideration. What you will NOT find in the article is the stupidity of the conventional handling of automotive glass. For example, you will find no mention of the insanity of crushing entire cars, including all the glass, instead of removing the glass for reuse as entire windows. You will also find endless discussion of the recycling of the glass which is a wasteful non-starter for any discussion of avoiding purposeful waste. In fact, this is a puff piece for the glass industry which thrives on the destruction of function on purpose, followed by the deceptive attempt to recycle mere materials, because that allows them to make and sell ever more profitable windshield glass.

I will add to this discussion of glass from time to time.