A key principle identified in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, the successful book written by Michael Braungart and William McDonough, is that waste in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. They use the example of the cherry tree, which produces huge amounts of blossom, the majority of which ends up only metres away from its source. However, it is not wasted, instead ecosystems exist around the cherry tree using the vast amounts of nutrients provided by the fallen blossom. What is excess for the tree, is a valuable feedstock for other organisms. As they describe it, “waste equals food”.
That is very much the spirit in which a new innovative sheet material, called Glassceramic, has been born out of, which is produced exclusively using the waste material from glass production processes.
Glass is generally considered to be a “clean material” – durable and relatively easy to reuse and recycle. However, during the production process, 5% of glass ends up as waste.
One way of approaching that problem is to attempt to make the process more efficient. How low can that percentile get? Another way of thinking views that waste as an opportunity, how can that excess glass be better utilised?
That’s where Glassceramic and its Decoran® glass sheets come in. The material is manufactured by MAGNA Glaskeramik in Teutschenthal, Saxony. The company takes waste glass from the surrounding area (their plant is based close to a number of large glass producers) and uses a combination of gentle heating and slow cooling to make a material that has potential functionality as a replacement for both glass and stone.
Re-processing that glass waste would normally require manufacturers to put it back through temperatures of 1200 degC, the advantage that the Glassceramic production process has is it is sintered at 700 degC. The process also doesn’t require the use of resin bonds, which makes full recycling achievable.
The potential of the new material has already been identified by architects and interior designers as something that has more life and durability than clear glass, while being more even and control than natural stone. One striking example, shown below, is the Glassceramic being used for the entirety of the outside of Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany.
Despite positive early achievements, there’s room for rapid improvement according to Low Impact Ltd director Andrew Savile, an agency that sells Glassceramic in the UK. Savile told Circulate that the marketplace can expect larger panel sizes soon. There is also the potential to take advantage of new feedstock opportunities, the product is currently mostly produced using glass waste from solar panels and float glass, but it has the technical potential to move into the larger bottle market. Savile and other proponents of the product are convinced of its scalability, and it’s easy to see why.
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