Even the Romans recycled glass

[Melvadius]

The results of some potentially interesting research into Roman glass production has been published by Planet Earth online.

 

The Romans weren't just dab hands at making beautiful vessels, ornaments and plates from glass; they were also good at recycling the stuff. A new study has found that towards the end of their rule in Britain, the Romans were recycling vast amounts of glass.

But the researchers behind the study think this probably had less to do with their concern for the environment, and more to do with the fact that glass became scarcer in the northern fringes of the Roman Empire during the last century of their rule.

 

Glassmaking was a highly sophisticated and successful industry during Roman times. Not only did the Romans spend over 600 years making things out of glass; they also knew exactly how to colour or decolourise it.

 

When you make glass out of sand, it takes on the colour of the various chemical elements from the sand. Given the right furnace conditions, sand containing a minute amount of iron makes glass blue-green, whereas iron and sulphur make it brown. So, sand from different parts of the world gives glass its own distinctive colour. That is, if you don't add anything to it.

 

[GhostOfClayton]

The small controversy aside, this is particulalry interesting stuff, Melvadius.

 

When I was Arbeia (South Shields) with Augustus Caesar a few years back, I seem to remember him showing me something experimental they were doing with window glass. Hopefully he'll be reading this and have something to add your article.