Glass is made from all-natural sustainable raw materials. It is the preferred packaging for consumers’ concerned about their health and the environment. Consumers prefer glass packaging for preserving a product’s taste or flavor and maintaining the integrity or healthiness of foods and beverages. Glass is the only widely-used packaging material considered “GRAS” or “generally recognized as safe” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It’s also 100% recyclable and can be reused endlessly with no loss in quality or purity.
1.Sand is the most refractory of the major raw materials, or the hardest to melt; it is critical that it conform to fairly rigid sizing specifications.
2.The particle size distribution is typically between 40 (0.0165 inch or 0.425 mm opening) and 140 mesh size (0.0041 inch or 0.106 mm).
3.Sizing specifications for the other raw materials are dependent on the sand specifications.
4.Since larger particles of different sizes tend to segregate during material flow, the other materials must be sized to minimize the effects of this segregation.
Cullet, or recycled glass, improves furnace efficiencies, including energy consumption. All cullet, however, requires processing to remove non-glass contaminants and to create size uniformity:
Cullet is usually color separated, crushed to a maximum size of ¾ of an inch, and screened and vacuumed to remove contaminants.
Labels, aluminum caps, and non-magnetic metal are all considered contaminants.