Waste glass, especially post consumer waste glass, has become problematic in today's society. Many methods are known for recycling the waste glass, including grinding up the glass into particles followed by melting or sintering the glass particles into new glass objects, including construction materials such as glass or tiles. However, in order to use waste glass for such purposes, it is necessary to separate the glass from the plastic, paper and other materials with which the waste glass is mixed.
Often one of the most expensive and difficult steps in the process of recycling such waste glass is cleaning the glass and removing all the plastic, paper and other contaminants from the waste glass prior to its recycling. The presence of waste paper may be especially problematic because the burning of such paper during thermal processing of the glass into construction material such as a tile may create bubbles which will rise to the surface of the construction material being produced, resulting in an uppermost surface containing defects in the form of bubbles or pores. Such flaws in the resulting construction material make it unsuitable for many applications, wherein the appearance of the construction material is paramount.
There are various kinds of equipment known in the art that are able to separate the glass material from most of the metal,plastic and papers during processing and milling of the waste glass for use. Inevitably, however, some part of these waste materials stay in the crushed glass. There remains a need to be able to produce a construction material from waste glass wherein the waste glass is contaminated with paper, plastic and other contaminants, resulting in a construction material that has a substantially defect-free outer surface, so that the construction material will be suitable for decorative uses. Moreover, a need exists for the production of a construction material from waste glass or other industrial waste material such as slag that will have sufficient mechanical strength and durability to be used in a broad spectrum of applications including exteriors and floors of buildings.