About Recycled Glass
Vitro Minerals has developed a white glass, called LA Glass, that is recycled from reinforcement fiberglass byproduct. In addition to being recycled, LA Glass is white, has very low oil absorption, and is 100% amorphous (free of crystalline silica). With a Mohs hardness of 5.5, and a very low alkali inert chemistry, LA Glass satisfies all the requirements for corrosion control, abrasion resistance, and electrical resistivity.
To better appreciate LA Glass, it is important to understand the recycled glass business. There are three basic streams of recycled glass.
Post consumer glass is the mix of glass picked up curbside in many municipalities. It consists of amber, green or clear glass and contains residual labels, tops, and organic contaminants. Efforts are made in most locales to remove metal contaminants and sort by color to allow the glass to be remelted in glass furnaces. Some of the glass is used as asphalt filler. Currently 22% of post-consumer glass is recycled. It would be extremely difficult to find an application for this dark glass in your formulation.
Post-industrial glass is a by-product that is generated from glass plants that make windows, windshields, containers, tinted glass, mirrors and other glass items. This is a soda-lime glass with high alkali contents, and is usually sorted in a rudimentary fashion to make it eligible for remelt. These product streams have a variety of colors, are cleaner and most waste is remelted. This glass has over ten times the alkali content of LA Glass.
Vitro Minerals LA Glass is a white, low alkali glass powder processed from post-industrial materials generated at fiberglass plants whose sole product is fiberglass reinforcements. The fiberglass was originally developed for polymeric systems for reinforcement, chemical inertness, and excellent electrical resistivity properties.
The LA Glass powders made from this material stream are extremely uniform in color and chemistry. The particle size distributions and hegmans are similar to the fillers you currently use, but LA Glass will have lower oil absorptions.
If you replace calcium carbonate, you'll gain abrasion resistance and chemical inertness.
If you replace silica, you can eliminate crystalline silica from your formulation.
If you replace nepheline syenite, you will eliminate any problems with the soluble alkalis blooming to the surface of your coatings.
Any replacement you make will exchange a mined additive with a recycled additive, and often allow you to improve quality at the same time. Your green product will now be eligible for LEEDS points from the U. S. Greenbuilding Council (www.greenbuilding.org) which awards points for the use of recycled content in construction products.
LA Glass comes from a 160,000 ton per year post-industrial product stream currently being landfilled. The product is extremely uniform and priced competitively with existing fillers used.
www.vitrominerals.com/aboutlaglass.htm