So I read this article today and was frustrated by the lack of interest, existing industry and resourcefulness towards this problem. India isn't special, the same thing is happening around the world with many kinds of 'waste' accumulating, seemingly without end or use. :/ Too expensive now, to be worth the effort.
GST effect: Why are Delhi’s waste collectors refusing glass bottles?
"We Don't lack resources, we lack RESOURCEFULNESS" - @ecoknowme
If you are familiar with my blitherings on here, you know I like EARTHSHIPS! Which use bottles as an artistic and practical building material. You can use them whole or cut them and make bottle bricks.
building beer bottle bricks, using adobe mud stabilized earth home technique to go green
How to Make Bottle Bricks
No Power, No Problem !
What about other VALUE ADDED Materials?
You could make Countertops:
Turning Glass Bottles into Countertops - Shaw TV Victoria
Also...
Interesting..... might also help with the GLOBAL SAND SHORTAGE
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for Natural Building materials, but if it would be possible to quickly efficiently and CHEAPLY make sand from existing WASTE materials, we might be able to turn a crisis into an Opportunity.
Crisitunity (ok maybe NOT)
But still, there must be more things we could do with these bottles, other than wait for the price to go up or GST to go down! Right?
You might also enjoy this article I wrote that covers ways we could be using plastic better. Though, the title is very misleading: Garden Tower Solutions and More!
I also wrote about Brown's gas/HHO here: NOT Your High School Electrolysis. Give me ONE WEEK to BLOW YOUR MIND. In that article, the idea of water welders is introduced. These are Welding machines that run on water and electricity and produce a gas that can weld totally different materials together, like Fusion.
That means you could take bottles and manually (or with that nifty machine) crush them into different colour powders and then melt them together with this gas.. All you'd need is water and electricity:
browns gas in korea
If you are like me, and don't speak Korean, just fast forward to 3:35 and you can see a piece of metal being fused to a brick. you could do that with a piece of glass too... or sand. Jewelers apparently love working with the gas!
What I THOUGHT would a neat idea is to reinvigorate traditional culture while addressing global problems... why not combine these ideas and make something unique?
construction and destruction of a mandala
So take old bottles, make different colored sands
...either by hand or with the use of an amazing 3D printer you just designed for this purpose, make your designs
Your company could even print out the designs people send in if it is automated.
Here is a HIGH TECH application, not what I have in mind, but you get the idea of what is out there, NOW:
MIT Made A 3D Printer That Uses Glass
Wonder how far you could go with this? Ok maybe counters are thinking a little too basic. Whoa! Looky here...
Alien Like Cathedral, 3D Printed Out of Sand
Get creative...
Markus Kayser - Solar Sinter Project
There are obviously LOTS of problems with this idea of mine and they would need to be worked out before a viable business or alternative could be created out of it.... but maybe you have a BETTER idea? Or at least see where I am going here.
'Waste' IS a Resource!
RESTEEM to spread the ideas! Share your Own by COMMENTing! Upvote if you thought it was worthwhile!
I would just like to note that when taking a functional glass bottle and using it for something else, i do not consider it a very ecological act. If the bottle is functional and it can be re-used, ie refilled, then if it is taken out of the bottle chain, another one will be created to fill it's gap.
THANK YOU! I actually meant to finish the post with a simple picture of Glass milk bottles to just insinuate how unnecessary all of that would be if we just stuck to the original idea of REUSING the bottles over and over again. But due to changes in perception and systems of doing business, we some how normalized insanity. Your commonsense comment was EXACTLY what I was hoping to hear. Thanks @patrickm
Very nice post. I enjoyed the bottlework at the earthship, your post just remembered me.
Favorite Quote of the week -" We don't lack resources, we lack resourcefulness."
Does anyone have any ideas for what to do with the crushed glass sand?