Concrete Recycling Locations

Bloomington glass blower shows work at CAC exhibit

Area residents pile discarded glass bottles around the Mack Glass sign at Jason Mack's warehouse studio in Bloomington.

This kind of collaboration is exactly what the sculptor wants from his fans.

Probably best-known in Bloomington-Normal for the shimmering glass Christmas tree he makes each year for the community, Mack, 28, likes to create his work with an audience watching. "Half the piece is people being there during the process and contributing, either by watching or by bringing in bottles," Mack said.

Mack works in post-consumer glass. As a cash-strapped sculptor recently-graduated from art school at Illinois State University, he decided to work in recycled glass because it was free. Using less expensive material gives him more opportunity for experimentation and allows him to work big.

What Mack didn't anticipate was how much time he would spend learning how to make the material work for him. Information on expansion and contraction that help an artist work in hot glass are readily available with new glass, not so when pulling beer bottles out of the recycle bin.

"It took me about a year of experimenting to get to the point where I could make the glass do what I wanted," Mack said. "Now I can make it flow like water or thick like molasses, depending on what kind of work I'm doing."

Mack's work on display at the Contemporary Art Center's Gallery 3R through July 1 showcases the variety of methods he uses to manipulate glass. In "Artifacts," chunks of recycled glass are melted into viscus piles among old shopping carts and slumped onto slabs of discarded concrete. Curvaceous forms called "Windings" are made from thin strands of glass pulled out while liquid-hot and spun around a form. Another piece called "I didn't Do It," which looks a bit like a broken window, was created from strips of glass laid flat and fused together in the kiln.

While some of Mack's work, like a recent commission for Normal's Heartland Community College entitled "Illinois Wheat Field," are created to be permanent, many of his pieces are temporary. "I like my work to be changing and evolving, similar to how a natural form or structure evolves."

Mack is known for his glass-blowing performances in which he creates an installation directly where it will be displayed while his intended audience looks on and collaborates. His "1,000 Year-Old Garden" was created in La Grange in 2009 and was displayed for two and a half months.

Partnersjo-Advocacy.com | Blog | Building Tools Information

This Blog Publish is out of Associated Content and brought to most people by boat building

Whether you are building a new structure or you are remodeling an old one, garbage, waste and trash are going to accumulate. Typically a dumpster is brought out to the job and filled with debris. But times have changed and landfill space is at a premium. By recycling used building materials, we can prevent wasting precious resources and stop filling up needless space in our landfills.

Appliances If you’re going to upgrade your appliances during a home renovation then reuse the old ones. Whether you give your appliances a new home or actually recycle them into reusable steel material, recycling used appliances is the green thing to do.

Fixtures Faucets, toilets, showers, sinks, fans, lights and outlets are all fixtures that can be recycled. Use the old materials by giving them a good home. A used materials store can be found in virtually every town, and donation centers abound on the World Wide Web.

Landscaping When your planning to add onto your home, build a deck or any other home improvement project that takes up landscaping space, don’t just throw away the old grass, trees or shrubs, recycle them by planting them elsewhere in your yard. Replanting old landscaping is the right way to Greenovate your home.

Cardboard and Paper As new materials come from suppliers, they are often placed in protective cardboard boxes and wrapped with paper. There are several methods for recycling cardboard and paper products. Shredding and composting works very well and is one of my favorite methods of recycling cardboard and paper. Many landfills also have cardboard and paper recycling bins.

Masonry If you’ve ever broken up a concrete sidewalk or slab, you know it’s a lot of hard work. Throwing it away can be even harder. Recycling concrete into landscaping stones can take the construction landfill out of the equation. Many facilities also exist for recycling concrete. Check your nearest concrete processing plant for locations in your area.

Shingles Asphalt roofing shingles has always been one of those products that always end up as waste. Now, facilities do exist that recycle asphalt roofing materials into reusable materials such as roadways, new shingles and mulch mats that prevent plant growth around street signs. However finding a facility that recycles shingles in rural areas can prove to be difficult; urban areas have a better chance.

Recycling of Demolished Concrete and Masonry

Materials for sustainable sites, a complete guide to the evaluation, selection, and use of sustainable construction materials

Progress in waste management research

Solid waste management

Recycling of offshore concrete structures, state-of-art report