A New Life for Glass

According to a recently released industry survey, the amount of pre- and post-consumer glass and blast furnace slag being diverted from the solid waste stream for use in thermal and acoustical insulation now exceeds 14 billion pounds. The survey of fiber glass and slag wool industries was conducted by the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association, which tracks the industry’s recycling efforts on an annual basis.

The latest survey shows that the fiber glass insulation industry has recycled a total of approximately 7.15 billion pounds of pre- and post-consumer glass containers in the form of cullet since introducing an aggressive recycling program six years ago. During the same period, the slag wool insulation manufacturers have recycled approximately 7.74 billion pounds of blast furnace slag.