Crushed glass instead of sand

Sand

This is the best use for unwanted glass I’ve seen. I wanted to do something similar to save money as well as recycle. The reason? We’re running out of coarse sand. It’s a worldwide problem and everywhere has a glass disposal problem. It’s an elegant solution. Even the powdered glass can be used as an additive for things like paint coatings. I’m a big fan of lime wash coating and glass powder will make it stronger and more wear resistant.

Thank you Christopher, for embedding that video. It was definitely worth watching.

Some take-aways:
1. Permaculture focuses on the circular economy, and the video showed a small crusher in a trailer, that could be taken right to the source of the bottles. They also had it set up to run off solar panels.

2. I had read before that glass concrete could be a problem due to sharp bits, but this system clearly  works in a way that the people could drag their hands through the bin of crushed glass without getting cut.

3. They clearly admitted that they're still researching in order to figure out percentages and "gotchas" that could interfere with the concrete being strong and safe. This does *not* replace all the sand - it just replaces percentages bases on the planned use of the concrete.

I wonder if it could be used in "Roman" concrete which is mixed in a different way - it is hot mixed and must be done on-site, but it seems to last far longer than modern concrete.

I also wonder if the operators ought not to have been wearing face masks. Possibly the machine is catching all the dust, but my sister does Stained Glass and uses a water grinder on the edges, but she still wears a mask when using it. Lungs don't like glass powder.

It should work in Roman concrete. The secret with Roman concrete is two fold. It’s a chemical process that needs the local volcanic rock, Pozzolana, to work or oddly enough flyash will work if it’s the right composition. I found sources to get fly ash from but most want to know how many tons you want and they are talking in the tens of tons. Finding fly ash in hundred pound quantities is tough. The other thing with Roman concrete is coarse mixes. They found  it was the coarse bits that gave it the self healing properties. Here’s an even better system. Look up “microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation”. You can get a lot of the same benefits but it uses a biological process instead of a chemical one. Traditionally it uses urine which can be off putting but it will work with urea. The trick is to soak aged urine in some soil then stick it in a sock and use a bucket of water with urea mixed in and maybe a quarter cup of sulfur free molasses. Let it sit with an aquarium bubbler for a day or two to let the bacteria reproduce then use maybe ten percent of this solution mixed with your water. Then mix your glass sand with limestone powder. I planned to set up a 55 gallon ball mill tumbler to reduce the limestone gravel to a powder. You can use any remaining coarse bits as an aggregate. Mix with the urea water mixture and after three or four days it should harden then after two weeks it should turn into a form of limestone. It will get harder over time and have self healing properties. If it does get a bad crack just brush over the same mixture and keep it wet for a few days but small cracks should self heal. I tried to propose this to the Portland CleanEnergy fund but they ignore you unless you’re an established charity or corporation. They have 1.6 billion sitting in the bank and $200,000,000 a year in new funding but they placed so many restrictions on use they can’t get rid of it. Most of it goes to putting more insulation in attics. Theres plenty of money out there to fix the problems but most of it is wasted or does to pay administrative costs.

I am seeing crushed glass used as landscape mulch.  It is very pretty and I want some ...

One trick I love is to use a rock tumbler to make your own beach glass. If you don’t want to buy powders you can use things like salt and toothpaste to make it smooth and eventually shiny. If you can find colored bottles it’s one of the coolest looks. If you top dress and the glass gravel or sand gets buried just shift it out each year. Just use things like dollar store colanders and sifters. Also putting it in a bucket of water the glass is the heaviest so it sinks to the bottom of the bucket and the soil ends up on top. I had plans to make a massive tumbler system so I could make rock dust and tons of beach glass. I planned to set up rollers then take a wrecked car and set it up on a pivot so the tire would turn the rollers then just drop 55 gallon barrels on top of the rollers and let them spin for a few days. It seemed like a cheap way to produce tons of rock dust and things like beach glass by the ton. A large set up could tumble five or ten 55 gallon drums at a time. Spreading glass gravel on top of the soil after you get the plants established is a great way to deal with weeds. It reduces the amount and the ones that fight to the top are easy to pull out then just recycle it every year. If you’re patient and have a large rock tumbler, most can come with two jars, just spend the winter making glass gravel. Use an old towel and a hammer to break it up then sight it into the tumbler jar. Use screens to separate the sizes after you get them smooth enough to handle.

We planned a trip that got cancelled because we bought a dog.

One of my wish list was "Go to the beach and collect sea glass."

I have only heard of Sea Glass or Beach Glass as I have never seen that.

I can’t remember where it’s either Washington or Oregon there was a very old dump on the coast. The tide broke it up and the lighter stuff got carried away but the glass stayed and over the years it got tumbled around and broken up and polished by the wave action. The beach that remained looked like it was covered in jewels. It is especially beautiful because it was over a hundred years old so a lot of the glass was colored. The irony is the old dump became a tourist attraction.

The one I know about is in northern California (Ft. Bragg).


Picture from: https://www.californiabeaches.com/beach/glass-beach/

Thats the one. I thought it was further north. The joke is I did a location, a film shoot, close to there 45 years ago. I didn’t know about the beach back then.

I wonder if that could be used instead of the sand portion in earthbags. That would be very helpful in my area where coarse sand is practically a myth. haha.

If so, I definitely need to figure out how to get one of those crushers.

Earth bags are a perfect use. Usually you use a small amount of concrete but check into the microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation process. You can use Urea instead of urine. I go through the process to infuse it with the bacteria in other posts. You can also use lime instead of Portland cement to be a bit greener. We produce such a massive amount of waste glass it seems an obvious replacement for coarse said.