Imported crushed beer bottles for construction

Havana.- Cuba launched this year a project by which it produced blocks for the construction from the glass ] recovered of imported beer bottles that the national recycling industry crushes to obtain silica sand the official media reported today .

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Island companies that own the right equipment, sell frosted glass to factories that produce Building materials, says the Director General of Investment, Communication and State Quality Union of Recovery Enterprises and Raw Materials, Dayamí Suárez

The already crushed glass takes the form of silica sand which is better than common sand, said the directive, quoted by the Prensa Latina state agency.

The idea of ​​recycling imported beer bottles started this year and is still in the testing phase, so that at that time the glass blocks are only produced in the factories of the provinces of Villa Clara (center) and Pinar del Río (west).

Now, the Union of Recovery Enterprises (EBU) aims to achieve a "final product and not just stay in the production of silica sand," Suárez said. The island recovers some 300,000 tons of waste in the form of 16 products, including recovered materials such as steel, copper, aluminum, paper and cardboard.

Cuban industry exports about $ 31 million of raw materials a year and according to the source reports an economy in the Caribbean country by the concept of import substitution calculated in $ 200 million.

Suárez pointed out that the strongest impact of the industry is in the ferrous tarra with 85% recovery, non-ferrous with 65%, and non-metallic with 35%.

These data, he said, do not include urban solid waste, a pending problem for the Union of Enterprises, which provides for the collection of some 500,000 tons of waste per year .

In Cuba, garbage is not recycled. only containers that allow citizens to separate waste, except in some tourist areas, although there are public facilities that buy recyclable materials such as cardboard, cans and glass bottles.

and exports – which in 2017 reported some $ 34 million – and recycling of products that are not currently recovered, such as wood and tires.