Domestic crushers for aluminium cans are relatively commonplace; the same for plastic bottles. But domestic crushers for glass bottles do not appear to be avaialble; large commercial units exist, but nothing that would suit a kitchen.
The pramaters are that the device should be (a) human-powered if possible, (b) crush the glass safely and relaibly, (c) reduce the fragments to a size which yields an acceptable packing fraction, and (d) store the crushed glass safely until collection or for transport to the recycling point.
The device resembles a paper shredder, with a circular funnel on the top. Within, pairs of hardened toothed metal rollers of diminishing size, mouted alternately in pairs at right angles, taper down to a small aperture at the bottom. Looking into the top, it would look like the inside of a pyramid. There's a lid to stop fragnments coming out of the funnel, and a safety interlock to stop it operating if the lid is open.
It can be hand cranked, or electrically powered.-- 8th of 7, May 17 2008 Operator_20Papier-M...odelling_20Shredder [hippo, May 18 2008] You should call it: The Glass Sand Witch. I'd love one of these - big +-- xenzag, May 17 2008 Wot we gonna shoot, if we keep ona crushin' thim?-- 4whom, May 17 2008 Yankees ?-- 8th of 7, May 18 2008 With a rubber band?-- mylodon, May 18 2008 I think the roller option is going to be a problem - things will jam, or throw out bits. A better option: a very solidly build compartment that can take one or two bottles, with a heavy plate that closes down like a car compactor; the plate can be driven by a hand crank with a good ratio. Once the bottles are crushed, the plate lifts up and a flap opens to let the cullet slide out into a collection box.
You've also got to figure out what to do with the cullet; either you need a place where you can take the box and empty it (different from a regular bottle bank, since the density of the cullet will be much higher than that of intact bottles), or the local authority has to be equipped to collect it along with your other rubbish.-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 18 2008 The local authority collection was the favoured route. Recycling trucks coyuld have a special hopper to take the small-grain cullet produced by bottle crushers.-- 8th of 7, May 18 2008 Local collectors could just provide depositors with fiberglass sacks for cullet.-- reensure, May 18 2008 In those areas where it applies, how would one recover the bottle deposit that was charged when these glass bottles were purchased? By weight or volume of the cullet?
Here's my take on it. There would be a difference in the monies refunded based on the state of the bottle (ie. a full 5 cent refund per whole bottle but 7 or 8 cents for cullet equavalent to the weight of one bottle). A modest profit to the person doing the returning would encourage home crushing. (Where I live this expense could be covered by the additional environmental levy that's charged on each bottle along with the deposit)
I know when I was a wee lad doing bottle drives for school and such, we used to have to separate the colours of the glass bottles we recycled. Is this still an issue? Would the operator of the home crusher be required to keep the colours segregated? That might throw a monkey into the wrench, at least as far as storage is concerned.
As long as I get my deposit back, I'll give this one a bun (no deposit, no levy).-- Canuck, May 18 2008 //Yankees//Yankee bottles. For an optional accessory: I'd like to be able to line up a bunch of bottles, and have a laser pistol that can "shoot" one at a time. A sensor would open a small trap door when the target is "hit", to be crushed. Another bottle can slide into place, until they're all gone.-- Amos Kito, May 18 2008 I'd like to add a hot sump and mold that melts the shattered glass and turns it into small effigies of myself, if that would be ok?-- wagster, May 18 2008 [wagster] see link (OK it's a shredder, not a glass recycler, but it's close enough).-- hippo, May 18 2008 Jesus, can I design it please? Just send the retainer in the mail.
This thing's gunna have to be built like a bomb to be reliable. Glass isn't the most crushable of crushables. Direct compaction I don't think will work very well at all - only to a point. So you're going to need a grizzly-type rolls crusher, some kind of ball mill, or maybe <just maybe> some kind of eccentric cone crusher <but I think your cone crusher will fail rather quickly>. It may end up easier to melt it directly.-- Custardguts, May 19 2008 I think you'd have to go with electrically-powered, or a flywheel thingie.
I think there still is an issue with coloured glass (a separate container, obviously)-- FlyingToaster, May 19 2008 // I think you'd have to go with electrically-powered, or a flywheel thingie. //
Ah, so there's all of the technical engineering out of the way, now all we need is a colour scheme.-- Custardguts, May 19 2008 ..... and a catchy name ....-- 8th of 7, May 19 2008 Is there a way to make fiberglass out of this stuff ?-- FlyingToaster, May 19 2008 ... With sufficient tooling, yes.
For a given ammount of "sufficient tooling", in this case being a "hell of a lot of tooling".-- Custardguts, May 19 2008 How about a large, transparent plastic container the shape of an Erlenmeyer flask with a sling shot at the top? There’s a metal pyramid (or whatever the optimum shape for smashing is) target at the bottom. This would also be therapeutic I think - makes me want to smash something right now.
Are suggestions for new words allowed on the HB? If so I’d like to submit “smashisfaction.”-- bneal27, May 20 2008 I think this could streamline glass recycling. As the cullet takes less space, the bins are more efficient, but godawful heavy, leading to more local glass recycloproduction and saving us all on the expense of fuel, shipping it all over hell's half acre. This must be supported by local salsa, beer and wine, of course, but these can be done nearly anywhere. Oh and gefilte fish, that always comes in glass, so you can see the floating goodness.-- plynthe, May 21 2008 I'd go with a cement mixer type tumbler rather than a crusher.
And yes, I did read this at first as a "Kitten Crusher"-- BunsenHoneydew, May 21 2008 // Kitten Crusher //
Ooooh, what a good idea ......
#include <EOSSACR.H>-- 8th of 7, May 21 2008 After crushing the glass into suitable sized fragments, the glass could be melted into individual slabs, say using solar enegy to avoid green'house effect and the slabs used for making bicycle paths.
el dueno-- el dueno, May 22 2008 // glass could be melted into individual slabs, say using solar enegy //
A solar furnace with that capability, even for small quantities, will be quite large, and not practical in high lattitudes for most of the year.-- 8th of 7, May 22 2008 Excellent idea. My mother used about 400 pounds of crushed glass to make the base for a patio beside my folks' home, so this would have been very helpful (especially for the sadsack shapu who had to cart the glass around in lined milk crates).-- shapu, May 22 2008 How about a pneumatic gun with an electronic scale that adjusts the angle of trajectory to lob the bottles into a receptacle close to the house?
Phoomph, Smasho.
(You could also make a compost pile this way. Make the mortar shell put of chitin and implant it with wildflower seeds.)-- nomocrow, May 23 2008 At my work we have a crusher for flourescent light bulbs (those are the long ones, right?). It's smaller than a dishwasher. I see no reason why something similar could not be used in the home.-- Flipmastacash, May 23 2008 I don't think crushing is the right approach. A tumbler might be closer, but a conventional tumbler design might not reliably break the glass very well (a lot of domestic glass is surprisingly strong). A tumbler that dumped the glass onto a rapidly counter-rotating ceramic striker might work, though.-- supercat, May 23 2008 Throw some ball bearings in there. The glass will break.-- nomocrow, May 25 2008 you've got several different scenarios... do you want to break the glass to make more room in the recycle box ? or do you want to turn it into gravel for some reason.-- FlyingToaster, May 25 2008 random, halfbakery