The concept of turning hydrogen found in water into a fuel source has been around for decades. About 20 years ago, there was quite a stir as university researchers thought they had created a fusion reaction using water that was going to be the safe, no emmisions energy source. Now, a company called BlackLight Power has developed a method for generating heat by moving electrons in hydrogen atoms to move closer to the positely charged nuleus. If they can do it commercially, it will be a truly gigantic leap forwrd. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

I get fairly regular calls asking if Pacific recycles glass. The reality is that the economics just don’t support it, at least not under current normal market-driven systems. Pacific tried once, several years ago. We had glass crushers at almost every recycling facility. The problem was keeping good markets for the material that were located close enough to not eat all the profit in transportation. A few of the other problems include separation by color, dust suppression and the removal of labels.

Eventually, citizens clamor enough to get local government to try to do something about glass – after all, recycling is the right thing to do and not being able to recycle glass just pains us. So, a government entity then implements (or re-implements) a glass program. This frequently ends in either higher taxes to pay for the service or they eventually quit because of the high expense of glass sorting, crushing and shipping. If you just use it for road base, you don’t have to sort it but still incur the crushing and dust suppression costs and then the glass becomes more expensive than gravel.

So, how do you get around this dilema of wanting to recycle glass but can’t do it economically, especially in a more rural area? I wish I knew.