Visiting the Montreal Owen-Illinois glass plant

The Owen-Illinois Glass

Yesterday, I went to the Montreal Owen-Illinois glass company with Espace VERRE's 2nd year students, glass/instructor Donald Robertson, his wife Susan Edgerley (also a glass artist/instructor on a sabbatical) and our General Director Christian Poulin...All I can say is Wowzy...It was very impressive with their Five story high glass furnace that holds 4 feet high of molten glass. We took turns looking in the pits of Hell with a welding mask. We started the visit by going to the mold warehouse with countless metal molds... Their main productions are beer bottles...So we saw so many empty beer bottles among other kinds stacked up into giant walls...It made me think about the many houses made of recycled bottles...

http://www.maisonsdebouteilles.com/about.cfm

What made me laugh the most was the comment that our guide said about burns that he had received in his multitude of jobs that he held for the company so I said Okay girls (our glass students are mainly women) show him yours and they all rolled up their sleeves and he said okay okay... You see when you play with fire, you'll most likely burn yourself and when you play with glass, well cutting yourself is inevitable...

To see glass artist Karine Demers blow glass in French at Espace VERRE

http://youtube.com/watch?v=c-ln2a4dVSA

Glass is made of silicate, soda ash limestone, Alumina-Silicate, Salt Cake and Minor Ingredients to create color... Well this plant mixes the ingredients with recycled crushed glass called cullet. Their facility has the possibility of recycling up to 80% of glass for the production work and they only reach 20%. Now that's wrong...we must recycle more!!!

This is the Owen-Illinois statement on their website:

Environmental Commitment
O-I is committed to sustainable packaging solutions that are safe, recyclable, non-toxic and add value to both people and the environment. Our approach will enable us to sustain our business in all economic regions of the world, for present and future generations, while protecting the consumer and the environment.
We realize that caring for the environment is the responsibility of everyone working within the organization and we will actively encourage all individuals to be environmentally responsible.
We take measurable actions to reduce our impact on the environment, while supplying quality products that are pure, safe, healthy and infinitely recyclable to our customers. O-I has implemented a program of continuous improvement appropriate to the nature, scale and location of its activities, products and services.
Glass’ Sustainability
Glass is beneficial, safe and healthy for individuals and communities throughout its life cycle. It is made from materials that are safe in all probable end-of-life scenarios and it has been a trusted package for more than 3,000 years of human experience. And it is the only packaging material to be generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Further, glass is the only true “cradle-to-cradle” or endlessly recyclable product. Once glass is sorted, it remains the most easily processed and most readily recycled container. Even when recycled again and again, the quality, purity and clarity of glass does not deteriorate.
Used bottles can be reused to make new bottles forever. For example, a bottle can go from a curbside recycling box, through the recycling stream and re-made into a new bottle and on a store shelf in as little as 30 days
Recycling
In communities around the globe, O-I provides outreach and support in setting up recycling programs. These programs result in decreased consumption of raw materials, reduced emissions and improved energy conservation.
O-I plays a vital role in U.S. recycling as an active supporter of the Keep America Beautiful Foundation and the National Recycling Coalition. As early as 1973, O-I received Business Week's National Award for Business Citizenship and was cited for having some of the cleanest glass factories in the nation and leading the industry in glass recycling. Today O-I is the largest user of recycled glass containers in the United States, with nearly a million tons recycled annually.