Montana residents finding new use for unwanted glass

Americans generate some 11.5 million tons of glass annually, which goes into the solid waste stream. Glass is heavy and bulky to transport, often times too expensive for rural communities to ship to the few glass recycling-crushing plants in the West, so bottles, beakers, goblets and tumblers simply go to the dump. Jon Cross, a Bozeman, Mont., businessman, has figured out ways to recycle glass and turn it into artistic yet functional consumer products: elegant countertops, attractive floors, artistic tiles and attractive vessels. His crushed-glass products through his company EcoMatrix Solutions even grace the exterior office buildings and pre-cast vault toilets. Cross has spent much of the past decade researching sustainable building supplies, and in particular the marriage of crushed glass and fly ash, which is the dusty cinders left over from coal-burning power plants of eastern Montana and crushed glass from the City of Livingston, Mont. Cross and an employee acquire crushed glass of all colors from Livingston’s pulverizer, and in Cross’ Bozeman shop, they create custom and stock kitchen and bath countertop surfaces at reasonable prices. Other products, prefab outhouses, floor tiles and similar items are manufactured there as well. The Missoula Federal Credit Union is another impressive project using recycled glass and fly ash. The exterior siding is artfully designed by MMW Architects and crafted of fly ash and glass, pre-cast wall panels and structural beams. Cross was the onsite consultant working with RediMix, which was batching the concrete in the cement trucks. The bank building has 600 tons of crushed glass, supplied by the Montana DEQ from a Butte recycling center. The project has won numerous sustainable-design awards since the bank opened in 2009. Cross’ work on the bank and his decade of research on industrial-grade concrete at the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University led him to launch EcoMatrix Solutions last year with his special cement, Minerva, composed of 100 percent fly ash with crushed glass as the aggregate. EcoMatrix Solutions’ Minerva, the trademarked sustainable concrete-based building material comprised of about 50 percent glass by volume. Alexa Calio immediately recognized the quality and salability of EcoMatrix Solutions’ products. Calio owns Refuge Sustainable Building Center, a Bozeman shop, which sells green building products from paints and stains to architectural panels and plywood, plus Cross’ countertops, flooring and the continually evolving line of fully recycled products. “We formed a partnership last year,” says Calio, who honed her building and remodeling skills crafting her own log home in Gardiner, Mont., while working in Yellowstone National Park as a wildlife researcher. She restored log homes and perfected the difficult job of re-chinking historic log structures through her Rouche Jaune, Inc., Chinking and Plastering business. “We leveraged each of our abilities to get the business going,” Calio adds, noting that Refuge Sustainable Building Center is the sole distributor of EcoMatrix products in the area. “We couldn’t have done this by ourselves.” The showroom in Calio’s Refuge Sustainable Building Center displays several of EcoMatrix’s countertops and vessels. One countertop, destined for a remodeled home is a custom 36 x 22-inch bathroom counter, tinted a Montana-sky-at-dusk blue. As the sun glints afternoon rays on the new install, flecks of light reveal the recycled glass in the smooth, highly polished countertop. “We have different finishes, different colors for our products,” says Cross, showing the hardened, polished and sealed surface that is resistant to stains and scratches. “It’s considered ‘Up-cycling’ rather than recycling. For example you can recycle aluminum cans into aluminum cans. Glass can be recycled into glass forever, but up-cycling is making the crushed glass into a new and better product, into usable products. And in the process we are making jobs for people here in Bozeman.” Cross said an important thing to understand is the sustainable practices of using fly ash instead of traditional Portland cement, which is known to contribute greenhouse gases in its process. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, cement plants using Portland cement are the third-largest airborne source of mercury in the U.S., after coal-fired power plants and industrial and commercial boilers. Once mercury is airborne then falls to the ground, organisms consume the mercury and turn it into methylmercury, a neurotoxin that can damage children’s brains among other damaging effects. The EPA set new rules in 2012 for America’s approximately 100 cement plants, rules intended to reduce mercury emissions by 92 percent. The Minerva brand name is derived from the Minerva Terraces of nearby Yellowstone National Park, impressive natural structures made from colorful travertine. Plus, in Roman mythology, Minerva was the patron of the trades, the arts and goddess of wisdom. Interestingly, this isn’t the only Roman connection. In 2000, Cross traveled to Italy and observed that ancient architects built huge structures like the Partheon from fly ash crafted from volcanic ash some 2,000 years ago. “It made an impression on me,” says Cross. “The Partheon is the largest unreinforced arch in the world, and the concrete was made from fly ash.” The glass was key to the Minerva. Currently, Cross and crew have used some six tons of it in the past six months and note that demand is increasing for his products. Next on his and Calio’s to-do list is to begin a subscription program in which Bozeman residents can recycle glass with EcoMatrix, and after so many pounds, they receive credit towards a Minerva flower pot at Refuge Sustainable. For those who want to contribute, the glass must be washed and no labels glues remain on the glass, which both can make crushed glass unusable. Don’t forget the pit toilets! “We’ve built pre-cast vault toilets for a fly fishing foundation in Jackson, Wyo. And the U.S. Forest Service in Wyoming,” says Cross, a project that plunked new vault toilets along streams or replaced deteriorating vault toilets that were constructed out of Portland cement. “Yellowstone National Park has asked about our pre-cast vault toilets too,” adds Calio. “We can produce and supply the region from local materials—that’s an important sustainable part of what we do.” Cross continues to experiment with his green alternative to traditional concrete, and Calio recognizes the increasing demand for such products. Together, they build a sustainable product and a sustainable business with a focus on keeping those bottles, beakers, goblets and tumblers out of the town dump.