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DEQ Market Development Work
The DEQ works hard to explore opportunities to recycle glass locally. The department recognizes that expensive hauling costs prohibit recycling programs that rely on out-of-state markets to pay for collected glass. Instead, as with other recycables, Montana must encourage local businesses or programs to utilize collected materials. Such local businesses or “markets” contribute to cost-effective recycling programs and avoid expenses related to shipping recyclables out of state to industrial processors.
Objective
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s long term objective is to have market development projects establish a local glass recycling opportunity. As stated earlier, transportation of glass long distances to process it makes finding local uses vital to glass recycling in Montana. DEQ’s hopes are to show case pilot projects to provide credibility that recycled glass cullet can be used in a wide variation of applications that will stimulate the demand for the product, giving a sustainable solution to rural glass recycling. These local markets make a significant impact on the glass cullet market value, especially for added value applications.
The following are examples of pilot projects throughout Montana communities using recycled glass cullet.
Northern Plains Resource Council Glass Parking lot, located in Billings, at 220 South 27th Street.
The parking lot was designed for water conservation. The recycled glass cullet (3/8-inch minus in size) was placed on a grid of geotextile fabric, which holds the glass cullet in place and allows water to permeate the ground, rather than running into the city’s storm drains.
The DEQ and the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) teamed up to use 1,000 tons of recycled glass from the Boulder landfill in a road project known as the "Curve," northeast of Whitehall. Specifications were written to allow the use of the pulverized glass in a 10 percent uniformly pugmill mix for the base course. The project was very successful and the contractor is willing to use the product for future road projects.
MDT Road Project: Whitehall, Montana
Eliminite: An onsite Wastewater Treatment Company, located in Belgrade (below)
Eliminite is incorporating glass cullet into the coating of its proprietary product: MetaRocks. These rocks provide for total nitrogen reduction and overall advanced wastewater treatment. This innovative and environmentally sound practice has given a green spin to the treatment and disposal of waste water.
Billings Fly Ash & Recycled Glass Cullet Project
This project used recycled glass and fly ash as a unique alternative to a standard concrete floor. The High Planes Architects new office building located in Billings had this beautiful floor installed. The floor is composed entirely of pulverized glass and Class 'C' fly ash. There is no gravel, sand, or Portland cement in the 2-inch topping slab. The concrete, which has a buff color without any added pigments, was batched by Knife River. After a short curing period, the 2-inch topping slab was ground by ProCrete, revealing the multi-colored glass cullet. Finally, the slab was sealed with soy-based finish from Refuge Sustainable Building Center.
The floor is one of many green building features in the 2,000-square foot space built by Tim Davis Construction. High Plains Architects anticipates receiving LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for the project.
Missoula Federal Credit Union Project, Missoula
This is a ground breaking project with far reaching environmental benefits. It could potentially help change the way construction is approached worldwide. This building will be replacing traditional Portland cement, both structurally (i.e., footings, foundations, slabs, sidewalks, driveways, exterior classing panels, countertops and flooring) and aesthetically. This will be the first known building in the world to replace all concrete with recycled glass and fly ash. This new cutting-edge mixture of glass and fly ash helps conserve the world’s resources. Traditional concrete production is estimated to consume about 10 percent of the world’s resources.
The commercial building (6,711 square feet) used more than 1,000 tons of glass and fly ash in the project. The building sets the mark in saving energy and resources.
Hayfield Subdivision in Helena
Sand filters are part of a non-proprietary anaerobic septic treatment system in which the sand acts as a mechanical and biological filter. Research suggests that using crushed recycled glass in place of sand may lower construction costs and improve the overall performance of the treatment system. Engineers working on the project for a new subdivision in Helena worked on final approval to replace the sand and gravel used in the sand filter septic treatment system with the glass cullet.
Hayfield has used cullet as septic tank drain field and drain pipe bedding instead of sand
