Market Insights
How organizations are overcoming challenges in the glass recycling ecosystem
Driven by the potential for cost savings, energy reductions, and fulfilled sustainability goals, glass manufacturers are increasingly incorporating recycled glass into their products. Glass is theoretically infinitely recyclable, creating a huge potential to use waste glass, or cullet, as raw materials for a variety of glass products, including container glass…
Market Insights
For the love of borates: Carrying the mantle of Steve Feller
Historically and currently, soda lime silicate is the most common type of glass used globally, serving as the windows and bottles surrounding us in everyday life. While alternative glass compositions sometimes made an appearance throughout the centuries,1 the emergence and reliance on specialized glasses did not become prevalent until the…
Market Insights
Green glass manufacturing: Sustainable processing and applications
Glass manufacturing is a carbon-intensive process, and many in the industry are working to reduce the sector’s environmental footprint. Two recent BCC Research reports demonstrate solutions to green glass manufacturing in both the processing and application realms. This Bulletin content is for ACerS members and registered users only. Sign up…
Bulletin Features
Global sustainability: Toward a unified system of green glass standards
What would it take to establish a global sustainability standard for glass manufacturing, materials sourcing, and recycling? Historically, the glass sector has lagged the aluminum and steel industries in establishing sustainability standards.1,2 Of the standards that do exist, they typically vary greatly by region. In March 2026, the board of…
Bulletin Features
Trinitite: Deciphering the glass born from destruction
When the “father of the atomic bomb,” J. Robert Oppenheimer, recalled the famous Hindu scripture quote “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” after the Trinity nuclear weapon test on July 16, 1945, little did he know that from the immense destruction something new would be born as…
Research Insights
Decarbonizing glass through raw material innovation
The glass industry has a unique presence in modern society, as this material serves a wide variety of purposes in construction, packaging, electronics, and renewable energy systems. However, glass manufacturing remains an energy-intensive process (consumes about 220 TWh/yr) and contributes significantly to industrial carbon dioxide emissions (emits about 50–60 MT/yr…
Bulletin Features
Green glass manufacturing: Approaches to sustainable production
Glass is a core material in modern society, but there are various aspects of its production and usage that remain less than ideal. Global glass manufacturing produces at least 86 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.1 Two aspects of the production process account for most of these emissions. One,…
Research Insights
Glass innovations for a more sustainable environment
Although glass is generally considered an eco-friendly material due to being infinitely recyclable in theory, the overall environmental cost of glass is high when you consider the required energy cost and subsequent carbon emissions during manufacturing. Industry, academic, and government researchers have all devoted a lot of effort to decarbonizing…
