Kuusakoski Glass partners with PDC to separate CRT glass

Kuusakoski Glass LLC, a subsidiary of Kuusakoski US, headquartered in Plainfield, Illinois, in conjunction with its cathode ray tube (CRT) glass treatment partner, Peoria Disposal Co. (PDC), Peoria, Illinois, has announce that the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Illinois’ Tazewell County have approved PDC’s application to use crushed, nonhazardous CRT panel glass as an aggregate substitute in the construction of landfill gas extraction wells and leachate recirculation wells at the PDC Indian Creek Landfill Facility.

Kuusakoski Glass and PDC say they have been working for the past six months to separate the CRT panel and funnel glass following crushing and metal removal. Engineering modifications have been made to the Kuusakoski Glass facility’s CRT glass processing line, and third-party laboratory testing has been completed to ensure the panel glass has been effectively separated from the funnel glass, the companies say.

After separation, the CRT panel glass is used as a construction aggregate material.

In addition, Kuusakoski Glass says it has entered into an agreement with North American smelter that will accept CRT glass of an agreed upon specification for lead concentration, on a limited basis, from its Peoria CRT glass processing facility. Some CRT glass already has been shipped and accepted by the smelter, the company says.

The CRT lead-concentrated glass that is not shipped to the smelter for use as a reagent is shipped to the PDC Indian Creek Landfill post-treatment and placed in a dedicated, retrievable storage cell until markets to extract and recover lead become available, Kuusakoski says, or used as alternate daily cover at the site.

“What Kuusakoski and PDC have accomplished is the essence of the circular economy, and what responsible recycling is all about—achieving best available recovery of value while being sensitive to minimizing greenhouse gases and protecting the future from toxics,” says Doug Smith, director of environment, safety and health at Sony Electronics Inc. “Life cycle analysis and evaluation of the entire ecosystem drives good decisions and true progress for the electronics, recycling and waste industries.”

“The treatment of the funnel glass continues to be the best solution to address costs, long-term liabilities and capacity shortfalls in the United States,” says Rich Hipp, Kuusakoski Recycling president of U.S. operations. “Nevertheless, we are happy to provide another CRT glass option to our customers who are willing to pay for it. With this latest announcement, Kuusakoski Glass now offers an unparalleled menu of choices for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and recyclers for the proper management of CRT glass depending on individual corporate goals.”