windshield recycling
Wednesday, June 21st, 2017 | Blog | No Comments
Many customers ask, Do we recycle our broken auto glass? We would love to be a part of a greener America, unfortunately, there are no auto glass recycling centers in our state. As our industry grows and a greener world is more commonplace, we will see auto glass and windshield recycling centers set up in all 50 states. Recycling of windshields is more complicated than the recycling of glass bottles because of their design. The windshield is formed from two layers of glass sandwiching a plastic film of PVB (polyvinyl butyral). The reason for this design is twofold. It not only reduces the risk to people from flying glass in the event of impact, but also helps keep people inside the vehicle in the event of a collision. As a result, windshield recycling falls within the realm of both glass recycling, as well as plastic recycling.
Windshield replacement companies typically work with recycling companies which can recycle windshields. Broken windshields are accumulated at replacement locations, typically in open top bins, and then sent back to a recycling partner to facilitate the processing.
The recycling process involves pulverizing the windshields, and then a further step that involves separating the plastic film from the cullet or crushed glass. While the glass is not used in new windshield manufacturing, various windshield recycling programs indicate that the glass material is used for fiberglass insulation, as a component of concrete blocks, as well as for bottles. The plastic material is used for applications such as carpet glue and others.
