Our idea is to bring together local SME’s (small and medium-sized enterprises) that would normally not meet, to create a new, mutually beneficial, financially sustainable business model. The siting of a small glassworks on a farm makes tremendous sense when we consider both new technological possibilities, and historic glassmaking processes from before the industrial revolution.
Whether we like it or not, we are in a climate emergency. The days of large factories creating huge emissions are very nearly over, through necessity rather than choice. These large industrial producers do their best to become more efficient, but it is not financially sustainable for building glass producers to create the logistical framework to recycle building waste glass.
I have spent 20 years developing methods of reducing emissions and costs of building and running glass equipment. Now that we can cut costs and emissions by up to 70%, The next stage is to make our own glass, using the mountains of building waste glass, currently a huge global problem, as our main ingredient.
Once we have established our first SME, based on Brimpts farm on Dartmoor, Devon, we will begin to build a network of small businesses across the country, and working together, we will make an impact on building waste glass mountains by simply turning it into a valuable asset.
Why are we paying up to £2,500 a ton for imported ‘art’ glass when we can refine and upcycle the waste glass that is currently a major ecological problem?
To do this, we need to create a large network of SME’s, creating jobs and the training needed to revitalise an endangered craft, and kick-starting a new art glass sector.
And we won’t stop there. We are developing new environmentally sustainable products such as solar concentrators, and in the next few years, plan to run our equipment on methane, harvested from farm slurry.
At this moment, we can create CO2 recapture systems on a small scale. We are not yet in a position where we can upscale these systems in a financially viable way to capture enough from large factories. We can, however, fit small CO2 recapture systems onto small units such as the ones we are building.
Imagine a glassblowing workshop, melting waste glass and locally harvested plants, which in turn create wildflower meadows, producing glass products with no harmful emissions, as when the CO2 is removed from our burners, the only waste product will be water.
This isn’t one of those businesses that promise everything but can’t yet deliver real ecological change. We want to revolutionise manufacturing with many SME’s working together for the good of their local community and for the planet. Each of these new technologies are already possible. We have a team of master glassmakers, glass technicians and engineers, a farmer with a viable biofuel business, a history and conservation expert, and scientists who can guide us in terms of surface analysis and optical efficiency.
We still have time to change the way we do business. Let’s make that change before we find it’s too late.
Ian Hankey, Director, UGC