Is it just me, or does he DEFINITELY need to do more how it's made videos?

I did engineering at university, and one of my placements was in a glass manufacturing company… I worked in the lab, and because of this our duties involve everything from the arrival of raw materials to the dispatch of glass bottles the upkeep of furnaces, cooling systems, and the actual glass blowing machines. It was the most diverse and interesting time of my life.

Hey Jerry, everything seems nice in that place but as a Safety Engineer i highly recommend you and the company to use appropirate masks against the dust or small glass particals. You may not see thr dust in the air but believe me there is very dangerous dust that goes to your lungs and stays there forever.

What struck me the most is the lack of safety measures; like I'd have imagined the air gets thick with small glass particles that can be harmful to your lungs

First I was astonished that they mix all glass. Here in Sweden we have to sort into uncolored and colored glass. Here it seems as they are able to sort every kind of glass piece dependent upon the color. What we saw, was one line of recycling, from mixed glass to clear glass to insulation, but it would be nice to see the other lines as well, like how different glass make up new bottles.

It’s always cool to see something you’ve fabricated being put to work in a clean, safe factory.

My family ran a garbage/recycling business for 35 years. Glass is infinitely recycleable, yet brings the least amount of money to the recycler. I’d take crushed glass to our buyer at roughly 40,000 lbs a clip. What they paid us, and what it actually cost us to transport was a vastly different figure. We only handled glass out of moral pronciples, to be frankly honest. Starting in 2010, we no longer accepted glass of any kind, as it was piling up our facility, because it was worthless and cost quite a bit of money to deal with, as we were a privately owned enterprise, we had no government help with any of our programs. We closed for good in 2019, and the main loss of income for us was single stream recycling. Unless you are a government run facility, single stream recycling more often than not, ends up in the landfill. Ask me how I know. You should mention the extreme cost in overhead to run a facility like this everyday. Consider how much raw material you’d need to bring in to justify running the equipment, paying employees, insurance, registration, workman’s comp, etc. Recycling only works when you have subsidized help from the government. I like to think we did our best for well over 30 years at helping the planet live a little longer by recycling, but as the generations come and go, people are lazier and looking for the easiest most convienent way to dump their problems on someone else. Single stream recycling is killing the planet and filling landfills. Edit: Whoa! Thanks for the likes! I ask everyone to be more conscientious when recycling. Separate your recycleable material and take it to a proper facility if you can! We must do our part, we’ve already scarred the earth enough.

I didn’t have a clue that they had a way to sort it that well but I knew it could be melted and remade. I wish more things were packaged in glass because it can be recycled so well. Soda pop I glass bottles tasted so good.

what a great follow thru video! Hopefully you are working on one that follows plastics since that seems to be the hardest and most concerning issue we are facing now as a society. Would like to see what is being done and who is actually recycling them and how much more we need to do and/or how we can help eliminate plastic waste.

You can probably get a second job as a voice actor in video games or animated shows/films or in commercials. Your voice is clear like a radio announcer's. Your delivery in this entire video is very fluent and fluid, and I could hear everything you said in one pass without needing to rewind the video. Keep up the high quality videos!

I'd love to see recycling of solar panels, EV batteries and wind turbine blades and motors. Exciting stuff! Thanks for the videos 😊

I remember when the milkman delivered milk in glass bottles and after drinking the milk we put the empties out for him to pick up on the next delivery. The empty bottles were then cleaned thoroughly before refilling for the next customer. A much more environmentaly process and much more efficient.

This video was totally fascinating for me. I usually will learn some new things from just about every one of your videos Zack, but this video caught me out, totally. Thank you, as always, for making your great videos. You truly are a plethora of information to me! Can't wait for the next one sir! Fred

I would like to see what they do with Capri Sun pouches & juice boxes. I've always had to go to different recycling plants for anything other than plastic, glass, and aluminum but it says on their website their processed differently than most recyclables.

This video is so interesting! It should be shown in schools to every young person, it will benefit them to know recycling is important and does work when done properly. And there are good paying jobs in this industry, on top of the great environmental benefits.

Thanks the makers of such things. All operators and maintenance courters. All the people who support recycling. Thank you so much explaining such processes and showing us what such circuits operate generally. So much easier for us who care, especially. How much does such conveyance circuits cost generally? How can we help businesses help afford such things? Peace friends💯

I'd love to see a similar review of all the tires that are no longer useful.

I want to take a moment and appreciate all the engineers that makes these things possible in each industry. This is extraordinary!

Well, that was freaking interesting. As a builder who has installed miles of Fiberglas insulation in my 45 years on the job, I am happy to see where all the tons of glass bottles I have recycled over those same 45 years have gone. Now if only the same thing can be done with plastic.

Very interesting well made video. Thanks for the explanation. I would like to see some recycle applications where the glass does not need to be molten at these high temperatures. I thought you can take the glass shards and turn them into floors after mixing them with epoxy. Minimal color separation needed. Please make more of these if possible.

I am curious tho on the long term use of the fibers as insulation materials because of its biosolubility. I hope when it deteriorates it does not pose health risk to users. Thank you for this video, Zack!

The tech at each stage is amazing. I had no idea any of these machines existed and it's awesome that they do

some places require sorting the glass by colours beforehand, which allows purer use of especially white glass, which needs quite a high purity to be used for similar usage again. I think it depends very much on where you are living and recycling the glass.

So neat! I would love to see more tours like this. I had no idea that fiberglass insulation came from glass bottles, and they use renewable energy.

The more you know! Thank you for the video Jerry. It's cool to know how glass is recycled and it makes it even more important to throw glass into proper bins!

That powdered glass is ALSO sprayed on wet paint lines on highways and roads when the lines are repainted because it makes that lines on the road very VERY REFLECTIVE. They been doing that for years now and it works very well to help see how to drive when its foggy.

dude, this was awesome. Seriously the best content I've seen on youtube in a long. Wish they showed us videos like these in high school. I would of taken a more active approach in life by seeing real world processes.

What is amazing (and sad) is how few people are required for the process at Owens Corning - That big plant employs far fewer people than you would expect.

A long time ago, way before my house was built I suspect that there was a garbage dump in what is now my backyard. Everytime you go out there you're sure to stumble upon an odd piece of glass here and there. You'll find milk glass, broken dishes, medicine bottles, etc.

That powdered glass can also be mixed into concrete to make it extremely stronger and bonding like a glue. I use to work for a concrete worker who would pound up his own and mix it into the mix .

I worked at a glass recycling place. We removed the trash from the glass there were lots of jewelry and coins in containments the line had some type of magnet that separates the ferrous and non ferrous metals. They mixed the crushed glass with plate glass sold it to Owens Corning to make fiber glass

I often think about the various machines in a factory and wonder how the hell we came up with that.

Recycling is such an important message to everyone. Keep up with these videos!!

Excellent video! But I am curious about the haze in the air and dust on his clothing in the first factory. Being glass powder doesn't it have the potential to do damage to the lungs ??? It's still tiny fragments of glass, could it cut up the lungs on a micro level?

Safety warning: Always wear sealed edge safety goggles, filter masks and gloves when working around glass crushers. Him just walking in there without any of that is an OSHA nightmare.

This was very interesting, thank you. I'm a big recycler and it's nice to know recycling is really working and well worth it.

I've just gotten into resin art & I actually just bought itty bitty pieces colorful glass for it. Considering I actually got very little for $3 of 6 colors I'm starting to wonder if I could somehow make my own. Although bigger pieces would be fairly easy. It's the itty bitty probably painted pieces that are harder.

The best part of this whole video was the fully-automated insulation factory! Not a day goes by where I miss hand-stacking and sleeving product on the assembly line.

Many years ago my father was general Manger of a sandpaper factory, I used to go on a Saturday morning and was amazed at that time as a kid that sandpaper was made from glass.

Interesting. In Germany, glass bottles usually have pfand (they're more expensive but when you return them to a collection site you get the money back), they then get sorted out, cleaned and refilled. Same with hard plastic bottles. Softer plastic bottles usually get crushed. Since recently the Pfand system has become mandatory for all plastic bottles in Germany.

I work for one of these facilities and a driver came in today; said I gotta watch the video. He was right, you did a great job! Thank you for coming out and sharing what we do with so many and spreading awareness.

Excellent video. Thank you for showing us how this process works. We need to go back to glass and no more plastic. 😊😊I prefer items in glass jars anyway and this shows how much better it is for our earth.

You should be wearing a dust filter/ collector respirator to protect your lungs. The finished product might not hurt you, but the process up till then definitely will. Other than that, a great video.

Thank you for educating us as always! Wow, when I look at all that glass gatherd together only one thing comes to my mind, the sharpness. Imagine cutting yourself. Though you are so brave to just walk on that glass like that.

One of my small term goals is to eliminate all plastic dishes and bowls and convert to glass. Now one of my long term goals is to have recycled glass insulation for my old house. 😱 Loved this video content.

I’ve worked with propink for years and have always wondered how they made it. That’s so cool to finally see.

I have binge watched HOURS of How It's Made. I would love more videos of this kind, on ANY subject. Well done!

Another surprising use for recycled glass was visible in the sparkling roadways in a small rural town . It was added to the new asphalt for re-paving their roads !

Fascinating video. In my area, there's no glass recycling at the county recycling center. However, the local Target store does accept glass for recycling. If anyone has the same issue and you have a Target store in your area, give them a call to see if they accept glass, too.

I'm sure it's exceptionally healthy to be near all that glass dust without a dust mask 😂

I found out that a double sided trash can helps with the recycling mentality. I tried and tried, and it was not until we got the trashcan, we didn't start recycling. It was a complete mentality change and now the kids know that the cans and bottles go on the side can, and trash on the other. I highly recommend you try this!

For decades, fine glass particles has been added to paints and then sprayed to mark highway lanes....The glass reflects headlights and makes the lines extremely sparkly and reflective.

Way to go Zack, raising consiousness about valuable 'waste' and trying to decrease the use of plastics to keep the oceans relatively clean!

Great content. Interesting, educational, and has a sustainable green 'feelgoodness' to it. If I ever have to buy insulation it's going to be pink panther now, because of this video.

Whoever invents all these amazing machines are geniuses 👍🏻

Wow jerry you are the best .. enlightening us with recycling glasses..love every video of yours…

I love that these places let him do all the explaining and show all the equipment. It wasn't one of those awkward factory workers trying to explain how things work and him nodding his head in approval. My local recycling doesn't even take glass.

I'm surprised you can handle the glass dust like that. I thought you would get tiny splinters.

As an environmental engineering student, seeing these kinds of facilities makes me happy. Thank you

I work for Owens Corning as an Engineer. We're converting the Nephi facility to a wool plant actually too. Cool to see the exposure.

As others have pointed out I wonder how glass gets sorted out (or doesn't) at single stream facilities, especially considering a lot of it winds up broken and mashed up inside all the other crap thrown into recycling while getting from point A to B.

Recycling is for sure one of the best things we can do as a society, thanks for showing that in such an entertaining way. I loved the quality of this video. I wonder what camera are you using?

Just a casual viewer but it's cool to see Jerry out in the field. Kinda cool. Also, Jerry is tied for the best voice on the tube with the Weird History guy

I am 71 years old. I was raised on a farm. As a child, we took Coke bottles to the grocery store for a deposit. We kept and reused glass jars. There were no plastic containers or grocery bags. We didn't have a whole lot of glass jars, because we had a house garden and put up all the vegetables we needed each fall. Things have changed. 🤔

Your production value is incredible, you deserve several hundred thousand subs at the very least!

Since you asked - how does metal get recycled, how does paper get recycled, how do facilities in CA (and my othr places) that have mixed recycling seporate things properly so they get recycled. This is what I would like to see video of. Loved the video on how glass gets recycled. Thanks!!!

I think if more people saw the results of recycling than more people would recycle

The factory and conveyer belt views were so relaxing. Those shots really hit the spot.

Just had a local university student make a glass reinforced concrete business down the road from our chemical business! They're busy as heck and seem to be doing something cool with waste glass.

Good to see a different type of video. Keep creating such informative content. Kudos to you

Recycled glass is also used as a Blasting Media/Sand Blasting. In the past two months I personally have gone thru 3000 pounds of Silica free recycled glass to blast a big log home and I work alone. It's way cheaper than any other eco friendly and safe media to use.

They market crushed glass as an alternative to sand in abrasive blasting. It's safer because it contains "amorphous" silica, as opposed to the "free silica" found in sand, which can cause a lung disease called silicosis.

This is pretty cool, I’m actually doing a rebuild inside that building right now! Awesome place with some good people

I would like to see a video on paper waste. Most cardboard containers are not "clean", as they are coated with colorized waterproofing and printing. Can we still efficiently recycle paper and cardboard?

I know an old fly dumping site that has glass shards mixed into the soil to a depth of at least twelve feet. Sometimes a whole bottle will show up. There was a broken glass jug with a tree root growing through the handle.

That glass sorter is probably the coolest thing ive seen this year. crazy how fast it works and how small the items it can detect and move are

I helped my grandpa weigh bags of potatoes, tomatoes,candle the eggs, load up the step van which was a stainless steel cooler or chest type,he had customers in the city & I rode along. Can't imagine doing it today

Awesome! I every time I drive past that factory in Nephi (Owen’s Corning) I wondered what it they made there. Now I know, I always thought it was a power plant.

They can also use turbines from those vent stacks for electric generation functioning essentially like a steam engine, and a fan system similar to "wind mills" which would also further reduce electricity costs. Also most plastics cannot actually be recycled.

I'm surprised no respirators are required to be worn in there? I see piles of glass falling and making huge clouds of particulate, that just make me think about fiberglass insulation and asbestos :/ I hope you're okay!

I wish they'd show how the optical sorter works inside.

Just a question: Is there glass particles floating in the air inside the factory? If so, I think everyone inside should be wearing a respirator.

So if glass if infinity recyclable, is it correct to assume fiberglass products, such as insulation can also be recycled? I’d love to see a video on how that’s fine and it’s uses…more insulation, etc.

Surprising the color sorting doesn't occur when the pieces are larger

I think the glass dust inside is crazy. Wonder how bad is for workers lungs.

Thanks a lot. I always hate to see good things {glass or pastic} in trash bins years ago. We recycle them now really make me very happy. I appreciate you guys jobs. May God bless. 🥰🥰🥰🥰

Be careful, not all glass insulation is like this - a lot of it is bad to touch and dangerous to breathe in.

With all the dust and glass dust I'm seeing, I'm surprised breathing protection is not mandatory in this facility.

Really informative and knowledgeable to learn especially for glass recycling. Fascinating and Amazing 👏.

How are car, truck, tractor, & heavy machinery batteries recycled? I’d like to see a video on that. 👍

THIS IS SO SICK!!!! Love your work sir! Aspire to be like you one day

I know this isn’t an ASMR video, but if it was, it would be full body cringe 😂 originally had my Bluetooth speaker all the way up when this video started 😅 Also pretty fascinating stuff! I had no idea that our recycled glass is turned into spray insulation!!!

This whole process is gorgeous.

Please do more of these Zach! Thank you for using your platform for this.

It's really cool to see that Owens Corning plant. I'm a truck driver and I have picked up in that plant in nephi probably a good dozen times.

I had no idea that’s how fiber glass insulation is made. I knew it had fiber glass in it but I didn’t know it was just straight glass fibers. Makes sense now though

I would like to mention that thermal and electrical insulation are two different properties. So although something might be a thermal insulator that doesn't necessarily mean it's a electrical insulator! Also the insulating properties of glass wool mostly come from the air pockets inside. Glass itself is not that great of a thermal insulator which is the reason new houses are being built with triple pane glass filled in-between with argon.

I always figured that fiberglass insulation was made by an elaborate candy floss machine.

As a huge fan of the serie "How it's made" i vote for Zach to make a serie on any renewable stuff/recycleable item you can imagine, very interresting and educational. greetings from france !!!!!

Thank you for this video I often wonder how they recycle glass.. Pretty nifty process they just turn back into the material that they used to begin with to make the bottle in first place.