Cullet prices climb as recycling targets bite
Container and flat glass makers are competing for the same clean broken glass.
The price of clean, sorted cullet has risen by close to a fifth this year as glassmakers chase higher recycled content to cut furnace energy and emissions.
Every ten percent of cullet in the batch can reduce furnace energy use by roughly two to three percent, which is why producers are signing long-term contracts with demolition contractors and processors.
Cullet used to be waste we paid to remove. Now it is a raw material we negotiate for.
Flat glass makers face a harder task than container plants, because their cullet must be almost free of ceramic and metal contamination to avoid defects in the ribbon.
The carbon arithmetic
Lifecycle studies suggest that glass production accounts for most of a window’s embodied carbon, while performance in use dominates over the building’s life. Getting both right is the industry’s central challenge for the decade.
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Energy prices push float makers towards oxy-fuel furnaces
Pure-oxygen combustion cuts fuel use and nitrogen oxide emissions.
