Eternal life of glass. What is made from broken windows and used bottles in the Chelyabinsk region

Such a popular service in Soviet times - the point of receiving glass containers - is now a rarity. There are about a dozen outlets in Chelyabinsk. The bulk of glass waste goes to containers, and then to the solid waste landfill. How are used bottles, old cans and broken windows treated? Can the so-called cullet be reused? The correspondent of "Pchela" learned about this from the representatives of the landfill and those who specialize in the processing of recyclable materials.

About 300 tons of glass are supplied to the sorting complex of the Solid Waste Landfill in Poletaevo every month. The bulk is used bottles and cans. The so-called battle also comes across: window frames and balcony doors with double-glazed windows. They often do not reach whole. However, the format of the glass is irrelevant for sorting. The main thing is that it is not a crumb, which is almost impossible to separate from other waste.

Only the smallest pieces of glass that cannot be sorted out are sent for burial.

- The term of glass decomposition is known - about 1000 years. For obvious reasons, the result of the natural decomposition of this material has not yet been seen by a single person. According to rough estimates, at present, exactly the same amount is buried, which we manage to sort, that is, about 150 tons end up in the "body" of the burial at the landfill. The huge volumes of burial are associated with the fragility of the material - glass, unfortunately, crumbles into small fragments during transportation. And then it is almost impossible to choose them, ”the press service explained.

Larger fragments, whole bottles and cans can be used as raw materials.

- Today glass is accepted by the only enterprise in the Chelyabinsk region - the Korkinsky glass container plant. The enterprise is quite large and accepts glass waste from several regions. We supply about 150 tons per month, but this is not enough for the manufacturer. Unfortunately, we can’t do more, ”said the press service of the solid waste landfill.

In support of their words, representatives of the Korkino glass container plant cite figures: they process 95 tons of material every day. It is about 2850 tons per month.

- Our plant fully works with cullet. We take about 25-30% of raw materials from landfills. The rest is sheet glass, rejects from factories, factories that make something out of glass. We also recycle automotive triplex. It happens that private traders collect and bring something, but this is a small share. We pay for recyclables, - said Mikhail Gerasimov, chief technologist of KSZ LLC.

The production of glassware specifically from cullet is considered more environmentally friendly. And the point is not only that the area of disposal of such waste is decreasing.

- The cullet is, in fact, already finished glass. It takes about 20% less energy to melt it. Gas is saved. This time. Second, there is no need to melt various raw materials from which glass is usually made, which means that no harmful gases are emitted, - Mikhail Gerasimov explained.

The material that will go into work must correspond to a number of parameters. For example, large inclusions of iron, wood, plastic are not allowed, that is, a euro-window in its original form will not be accepted at the plant. But the receiving side will close its eyes to small foreign elements.

- At the enterprise, all cullet undergoes washing and manual bulkhead. We remove any plastics, ceramics and iron that come across. We load clean cullet into stock bunkers, where about 100 tons can be stored. From the bunkers, the cullet enters the glass-making furnace, where, under the influence of a temperature of 1500 degrees, the material melts. This is how molten glass is obtained. Among other things, it goes through the stage of clarification, purification of air inclusions. Then the mass is fed to glass-forming machines. Next comes the process of formation of a "drop of glass". It has its own for each assortment. The “drop” enters the glass-forming machine, where the finished products are produced by the press-blowing method, ”explained Mikhail Gerasimov.

From recyclable materials at the Korkinsky glass container plant, cans with a volume of 400 milliliters to 3 liters are made.

If a separate waste collection system were operating at full capacity in the region, it would greatly simplify the life of producers.

- If you recall the Soviet experience, when there was acceptance of glass containers, it helped a lot. If this were the case now, we would accept pure cullet from the population. Then it is possible to simplify the process of manual bulkhead at the enterprise, - Mikhail Gerasimov expressed his opinion.

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This is confirmed by the experience of other countries. The collection and processing of cullet was delivered to the flow in the USA, Germany, Hungary, Great Britain. In England, over 16 thousand tons of disused glass containers are recycled annually. This is largely the merit of the population. The British are actively involved in recycling programs. The kingdom even hosts competitions for the collection of glass containers and gives prizes to the largest "suppliers".

In Russia, the practice of self-sorting garbage is just beginning to take root. Moscow switched to a two-line waste separation system. In the capital, two types of containers are used: for mixed waste and for recyclable materials. Until 2030, all constituent entities of the Russian Federation should switch to such a scheme. Work has already begun in the Chelyabinsk Region. The region will receive 11 million rubles from the federal center for the purchase of containers for separate waste collection. They will be installed in a number of cities, including, of course, the regional center.

Taking care of the environment requires complex measures. Their environmental projects are being implemented at the Poletevsky solid waste landfill. It replaced the half-century city dump. Now waste from Chelyabinsk and other settlements is transported to the sorting complexes of the solid waste landfill. There they undergo weight control, are sorted, part goes for processing, part - for burial in specialized cards with a protective screen.

A polymer processing park is under construction on the territory of the solid waste landfill - this is an ambitious project to unite recyclable recyclers. The first workshop for the processing of plastic bottles and the production of flakes (PET-flex) has already been launched.

In 2020, at the all-Russian competition "Reliable Partner - Ecology", the MSW landfill in Poletaevo was recognized as the best project for the effective management of MSW.