New partnership promises green jobs and greener wine bottles at South Seattle recycling facility.

A new Glass recycling plant in South Seattle promises 50 green jobs and new green glass containers made with double the amount of recycled glass.

eCullet, a technology-based glass recycling company, and Saint-Gobain Containers (SGCI), the nation's largest manufacturer of wine bottles, announced today a precedent-setting recycling initiative at the opening of eCullet's new South Seattle recycling plant.

eCullet is a state-of-the-art cullet (crushed recycled glass) processing facility located next to SGCI's glass container manufacturing plant. Its patented automated technology is based on a non-intrusive optical sorting of glass cullet. Considered the next generation of glass recycling technology, eCullet's process involves removing post-consumer waste glass from the recycling stream and converting it into clean, color-sorted, contaminant-free, furnace-ready glass cullet for glass container manufacturers to produce new "green" glass containers. eCullet will source locally from recycling programs in the greater Seattle and Vancouver, BC areas.

"We are proud to be part of the ever increasing community of companies committed to the conservation of resources," said Craig London, CEO of eCullet. "We are also excited to introduce about 50 new green jobs to the Seattle area."

Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly. Of the 8.4 million metric tons of glass containers sold in the US on an annual basis, only 25% is currently being reintroduced into the glass container manufacturing process, with the remaining 75% being diverted into landfills or other secondary uses. eCullet's technology has the potential to dramatically increase the recovery and use of recycled glass.  

"By using eCullet's ground-breaking technology, Saint-Gobain Containers aims to increase the amount of recycled content used to manufacture new glass containers at our Seattle plant from 17% to 35%, with the potential to increase more in the future," said Peter Walters, Vice-President of Purchasing and Distribution for Saint-Gobain Containers. "Since we produce about 350 million bottles per year at this plant, this is a critical step to help us reach our company-wide goal of using 50% recycled content by 2013."

The environmental and manufacturing benefits of recycling glass include: reduced air emissions, increase of furnace life, 4-5% reduced energy usage for every 10% increase in cullet (the increased recycled content in Seattle will result in a 9% reduction in energy usage), and reduced need to use raw materials in the manufacturing process.

The environmental benefits of the technology extend to customers as well. SGCI's Seattle plant's largest customer in the Pacific Northwest is Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville. The increased recycled content in SGCI's bottles allows the Winery to further reflect its own commitment to sustainable practices.

eCullet is a technology-based glass recycling company founded in Silicon Valley.  Its goal is to reduce the cost of glass recycling and make it financially attractive for all parties involved to recycle glass such that the consumers, the environment, regulators and container manufacturing companies all benefit.

Saint-Gobain Containers Inc. is the second largest glass container manufacturer in the United States and serves the wine, beer, beverage, spirits and food container markets with 13 strategically located plants.  It is a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, an international industrial group based in Paris, France, and the largest glass manufacturer in the world.

Geothermal Energy - Free energy from the earth. Waterfurnace at the Go Green Showcase.

I've spend a lot of my Green blogging life talking about energy.  Whether it's biofuel or electric vehicles, wind farms, my firm belief has been that anything, ANYTHING that reduces our use of fossil fuel is a step in the right direction. Conservation is good, but it's only going to get us so far.  Fundamentally, we need to change the SOURCES of our energy.

What if I told you that for a one time investment, you could generate enough power to heat your home, and run many of your appliances for FREE?  And what if I told you that- other than the initial investment- it didn't consume any resources and created virtually no pollution?  Sounds pretty darn interesting, doesn't it?

It's called Geothermal energy.  No, I'm not talking about hot geysers, I'm talking about using the natural qualities of the earth to make energy. It's called a 'geothermal comfort system' and was the subject of the first seminar at the Go Green Expo yesterday from manufacturer 'Water Furnance'. 

Basically, the way this technology works is you put a special PVC type pipe under the ground in your yard (reported to last 55 years) and using the constant temperate of the earth (50-55 degrees) running water through this pipe runs a heat exchanger that generates electricity using the differential of the ambient temperature and the temperature of the water.  You are basically building your own little turbine generator. 

What impressed me most was how efficient and simple this is.  According to presenter Sean Dillon, a geothermal loop of this kind produces significantly more kw than wind or solar.  So it costs way less money to set up and every one dollar you throw at it gets your four or five dollars of energy.

This is technology you can buy today, and take advantage of a 30% tax credit, while it's still in effect.  Many municipal utilities also offer rebates or other savings.

Remember, ir you're a typical homeowner, about 40 to 60 percent of your total energy bill is for heating cooling and hot water.  The biggest opportunity to save money is to increase the efficient of your heating and cooling system.

The seminar will be repeated Sat at 3:30p and Sun at 12 noon at the Go Green Showcase inside the Everett Home Show so you can go find out for yourself or you can get more information here.

Go Green Showcase - Guest Speaker Schedule

The Go Green Showcase opens today as part of the Everett Home Show (see post below) I'm heading up there now.  Meantime, here is the guest speaker seminar schedule for the weekend.

Friday    1:30p    Geo thermal energy
Friday    2:30p    Saving energy with LED lighting
Friday    3:30p    Designing sustainable stones
Friday    4:30p    New green jobs in Washington

Saturday    11:30a    PUD energy challenge
Saturday    12:30p    Geo thermal energy
Saturday    1:30p    Designing sustainable stones
Saturday    2:30p    Saving energy with LED lighting
Saturday    3:30p    Geo thermal energy

Sunday    11:am    Green cleaning
Sunday    12pm    Geo thermal energy
Sunday    1pm            Residential energy efficiency
Sunday    2pm            Geo thermal energy
Sunday    3pm            Designing sustainable stones