My name is Tyler Gordon, Pilchuck Glass School's Studio Technician. At Pilchuck, we have taught classes in glassblowing for more than 50 years. In this time, access, use, and standards for glass have changed tremendously. We now have to think about global environmental impact like never before. For this reason, I set out on a path to explore using post-consumer glass waste in our educational courses. 

For the past 8+ years, we have been using premium cullet as our primary glass. This is principally because of safety and ease of use, but as we start to investigate our material procurement, usage, and waste stream, this seems like an area that is ripe for reevaluation. For example, a large percentage of our material is used by beginning and intermediate glass students. By necessity, these students have much more of their work go into the trash bin than they keep. This is part of the cycle of experimentation and learning, but it is also hard to justify a material being produced in Europe, from virgin materials, being shipped to the farthest corner of the United States, melted once, blown once, and placed directly into a landfill.

Click here for a full report on our experiment with recycled window glass. This paper documents an effort to create a glass that fulfills the appropriate standards for glassmaking and learning, but without such an extreme environmental cost. My hope is that this paper will serve to help others see paths in making glass from local resources with the goal of global effects. Additionally, I hope that it will save other interested persons countless hours of research that would otherwise be needed to get started.

This paper is an account of research and trials in designing a glass recipe and a process that is effective at creating a positive environmental impact in a modern school setting. But please be advised- this is ONE single account of ONE way to reach these goals. There are many more.