Owens Corning, Ripple Glass Begin KC Recycling Project

October 16, 2009

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Owens Corning will purchase about 85 percent of glass recycled through a new Kansas City-area project that involves executives of a local brewery.

Ripple Glass will place 60 glass collection bins throughout the Kansas City area. What is collected will be crushed at a new $3.5 million glass crushing facility, which will produce cullet.

Owens Corning, in turn, will purchase about 85 percent of the cullet to turn into insulation, reports the Kansas City Business Journal.

Ripple Glass was started by three executives at Kansas City-based Boulevard Brewing Co. Without a citywide glass recycling effort, Boulevard said about 10 million of its own bottles were ending up in landfills every year.

The article notes that Kansas City recycles only about 5 percent of its glass, compared to a national average of 28 percent. In all, Kansas City sends about 80,000 tons of glass to landfills annually.

The new crushing facility can process five tons of glass an hour and can be expanded to triple the capacity.

Gale Tedhams, Director of Sustainability at Owens Corning, said the project fits in with the company’s philosophy of creating sustainable projects.

“By using recycled glass, it requires less energy and provides reduced greenhouse gas emissions, which makes for a cleaner process for making our products,” Tedhams said in the article. “Recycled materials are highly valued by contractors building LEED-certified structures.”

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