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A building under construction near me has a large sign around it advertising a local alcohol company: it provides sand via recycled bottles (for the concrete, I assume). I'm curious how efficient this is in relation to finding new mining exploits nearby, or if this is just marketing.

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Could just be marketing or for Aesthetics. Glass and concrete don't always mix that well. My hobby is concrete countertops with glass fibers, and these are specifically alkali resistant. Concrete and glass don't mix well without additives, which may or may not matter for eco friendliness. You will find some fly ash in some concrete mixes, which is a byproduct of power plants more common.

It does seem that using glass aggregate is effective, perhaps not as a primary building material but an ancillary one. This wikipedia article is not amazing but seems to give a passable overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_recycling. Having said that, the company in question has run similar environmental programs in the past so it's probably mostly marketing.

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