Quick Facts About Glass Repair
Energy needed to produce one windshield is equal to 10,000 repairs. In fact, new figures were recently presented based on a scientific analysis of energy cost for producing glass: with a 20 percent increase in glass repair worldwide, carbon emissions would be reduced by 57 million metric tons.
Nationally, 11 million windshields are replaced annually. At an average weight of 25 pounds each, this equates to about 275 million pounds of waste per year.
The Boston Globe
Glass takes more than 1 million years to decompose in our landfills.
California Department of Conservation
Windshield glass is difficult to recycle because much of the glass is 2-ply laminated and contains a PVB layer that must be separated. Integrated heating elements or radio antenna
are often embedded within the windshields and cannot be returned to the glass furnace for reworking. British Glass, Glass Manufacture: A Mass Balance Study, 2005
The transportation of glass, which is a relatively heavy product, throughout the supply chain results in high levels of transport-related CO2 emissions.
Advances in Glasses and Glass-Ceramics, Frost & Sullivan, 2006
Glass manufacturing is a high-temperature, energy-intensive activity, resulting in the emission of combustion by-products (sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides) and the high-temperature oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen.
Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines for Glass Manufacturing, World Bank Group
It takes 15.2 million BTUs of energy to produce one ton of glass. The manufacturing of one ton of glass can generate as much as 385 pounds of mining waste and 28 pounds of air pollutants. Like the production of other materials, glass manufacturing and usage has negative impacts on the environment. The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation
