Is Borosilicate Glass Actually Recyclable?

Reducing your carbon footprint is very important in this day and age, especially at the rate landfills are filling up. Using a reusable water bottle is a great way to reduce your environmental impact, but what about when it needs to be disposed of?

Can Borosilicate Glass Be Recycled?

The short answer is yes, but there are some factors to consider when it comes to the eco-friendliness of borosilicate glass.

Like any other glass, borosilicate can be remelted repeatedly to make other borosilicate products. However, it has a much higher melting temperature than soda lime glass, making it much more heat-resistant. Due to its low thermal expansion coefficient, borosilicate can maintain its strength and transparency when exposed to very high temperatures. It can withstand a working temperature of 515°F and only melts at 3,000°F. This makes it tricky to recycle at normal glass recycling furnaces, as their temperatures cannot melt the borosilicate. The recycling plants that can handle this recycling process are very few and far between.

The other issue with recycling borosilicate glass is that not enough of this glass gets disposed of. This makes collecting, shipping, and processing the borosilicate glass a costly process. There's such a small percentage of overall borosilicate glass used by consumers that it has yet to become viable to recycle at scale.

Conclusion

Recycling borosilicate glass isn't a common practice currently, because borosilicate is one of the best water bottle materials and will last a lifetime when handled properly. However, recycling borosilicate is possible should the demand increase.