5 March 1998: Belgium“s Glaverbel announced it has won in the “Ecoproduct” category for its Mirox new generation ecological mirror (MNGE) at the Prix de l“Environment 1997-1998 competition. It also …
5 March 1998: Belgium“s Glaverbel announced it has won in the “Ecoproduct” category for its Mirox new generation ecological mirror (MNGE) at the Prix de l“Environment 1997-1998 competition. It also won a special mention in the “Waste Recovery” category at the awards cermony, for the fume purification project at its float glass plant in Moustier, Belgium. MNGE mirror glass, produced at Glaverbel Zeebrugge, the world“s largest mirror manufacturing plant, has a special surface treatment instead of the copper coating normally used to protect the reflecting silver layer. The special mirror also eliminates any traces of lead from the paint layers used to protect the mirror. The ecological improvements are due to the elimination of copper and lead in the finished product, enabling it to be classified as an inert waste material, and to the reduction of 90% in the concentration of organic material and ammonia in the manufacturing effluent. The mirror, the company says, also has higher resistance to attacks by external agents (natural or artificial), and has a lifetime at least three times longer than traditional mirrors. It is also distinguished by its light reflection coefficient of more than 92%. Meanwhile, Glaverbel-Moustier, the largest flat glass plant in the world, has inaugurated a new fume-scrubbing process. The technique consists of recovering the dusts produced by fume scrubbing, and reducing them into the glass furnace as raw material. This process eliminates the need to get rid of the waste by dumping. Re-using the material to make new glass makes it possible to achieve the objective of zero waste, thus sparing the environment and significantly reducing consumption of non-renewable raw materials.