If you had a bottle of wine during the weekend, there is a very good chance that you will throw the empty bottle in the glass container. Just as you should. 90 percent of all glass packaging in Norway ends up in the right box. Well done! But how is empty goods actually recycled after taco sauce and prosecco? CIRCLE OF GLASS: All the contents from the return points are taken to the recycling facility Sirkel in Fredrikstad for sorting. We no longer produce new glass packaging in this country, but approx. a third is used in Norway for Glasopor (building material). Photo: Katrine Lunke We send 60,000 tonnes of broken glass out of Norway annually, down to Europe. Here, the waste is melted down into new glasses and bottles. Shards of glass can be reused an infinite number of times. Why don’t we use some of it to make glass here? Meet someone who bets everything on something no one else in Norway does: Blowing designer glass from our trash. A bright idea The heat stands out like a wall in the room when Heidi Skofsrud (34) flips open the oven door. Electricity prices notwithstanding, the glass pot must have well over a thousand degrees. HOT JOB: The glass mass in the vessel in the oven must lie at a constant temperature of 1150 degrees, 24 hours a day. The pipe she holds in her hands does not get as hot. Photo: Javier Auris / news She was saved by glass on a family excursion to Hadeland Glassworks as a six-year-old. In the years that followed, that was always her answer when someone asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?” When it came time to decide, she thought the child was right: Glass was still the fattest thing in the world. Eventually the idea came to start for himself. Could she do something new, in this ancient profession? The industry seemed more concerned with tradition than innovation. – The blowpipe we use is 2,000-year-old technology. We are proud of it, and we should be. But I’m more interested in showing people how we’re going to do it in the future, than talking about the old days, says Heidi. VERNET: Glass crafts had their heyday in the 19th century in Norway. Of 29 glassworks that have existed in this country, we have two left: Hadeland (here drawn in 1879) and Magnor. The profession is on the list of “protected crafts”. Photo: Norsk Teknisk Museum As much as a third of the glass huts (smaller workshops) in Norway have recently had to close the glass furnace due to electricity prices. The raw materials for glass production are also expensive. It’s not just about betting as a glassblower in the 2020s. A few years ago, Heidi moved to Fredrikstad, the city where all glass waste is sorted and sent abroad. Suddenly, an important part of the calculation fell into place: Why buy new raw material, when there are huge quantities of shards of glass right next to the cutting site? Heidi contacted the recycling facility Sirkel, and met someone who had the same thoughts. Marketing and communications manager Gunhild Solberg had already done a project using recycled glass. She was keen on more collaboration with glassblowers. The two exchanged ideas, and the result was the workshop Studio Sirkel. Heidi had secured money for equipment – and 1,500 kg of broken glass. SYMBIOSE: – It is better to use the resources we already have, and less energy-intensive to melt something that has been melted before, the two explain. Project manager Gunhild Solberg (tv) is as fond of recycling as Heidi is of glass. In the winter of 2022, Studio Sirkel opened its doors. Photo: Javier Auris / news Now she has three years to get Norway’s only glass workshop, which only melts glass from our rubbish, to stand on its own two feet. If Heidi’s project is to succeed, she must create things that a discerning market will love. The different glass It is fine to remelt used glass packaging at the factory to make new jam jars. But does the recycled glass work just as well in a demanding precision craft? Firstly, the mass becomes more unpredictable, as the mix of glass shards will be different from time to time. Another thing Heidi has learned is that the glass hardens faster. She has a few seconds from when the chewy lump is out of the oven, until it is too cold to shape. It often has to be reheated several times. – The mission of Studio Sirkel is to use the glass as it is. We do not want to add color. The recycled products are glossy with a green tinge, says Gunhild. A SQUARE OF RECYCLED: The design firm Odd Standard has designed “Pytt”. This is the bowl Heidi has made the most of. She can push 40 during a working day. Photo: Javier Auris / news The two want people to think “this is made of old glass, these are resources that have been reused”. – Many people think that people want what is completely white, completely shiny, completely perfect. But maybe we can create a new kind of beauty? says Gunhild. It has presented some challenges. The failed attempts The first test came in the form of a decanter. The assignment was for the gourmet restaurant Rest. Making this requires the right use of power, tools and heat. – If I heat too little, I can’t do anything with the form. If I heat too much, there is no carafe anymore, explains Heidi. At the start, many of the attempts ended up in the “oops, too much heat” category. The neck sagged, became lumpy and strange in shape. OH NO, THEY KILLED KENNY!: The carafe on the left may remind you of the character Kenny from the cartoon “South Park”. It is undeniably more demanding to pour water from than the straighter version. Photo: Javier Auris / news Heidi is not an artist or designer, she is a craftsman. She repeats that several times. She takes professional pride in making things of the best possible quality, preferably perfect. When the people who were going to buy the decanters came to visit, Heidi had hidden the ugly ones away. But the restaurant people stayed a long time, and eventually discovered the stingy gang in the back room. They were very excited. These decanters had personality! This is how a new element was added to the work: Facilitate small deviations rather than avoid them. IDENTIFY YOURSELF: The decanters are slightly different. But all can be used for beverages. Photo: Javier Auris / news – It was a change for me as a craftsman. But it’s a nice thought. Everything can be used, even what is not perfect. – Does that make you a worse glassblower? – No, on the contrary, I can drive myself. Now I can’t find a formula and repeat myself. From defective product to hyperhip The rough aesthetic has caught on. The things Heidi makes can be found on the table at the Michelin restaurants Credo in Trondheim and Renaa in Stavanger, among other places. The company Odd Standard is behind the design of the products Heidi makes in the workshop. They have close contact with the luxury restaurants that buy them. – Is it the aesthetics or the label “recycled” that sells? – The fact that the glass is recycled is not enough on its own, but an important part of the whole. We don’t have the type of customers who buy on principle, the main reason is that they like the products, says Tonje Sandberg, designer and partner at Odd Standard. One enthusiastic customer from the fancy-food world is chef and restaurateur Eddie Sheperd in Manchester. He serves blue algae infusion (jada) in the “Pytt” bowl. BLUE ALGAE: Eddie Sheperd’s restaurant has been named one of Britain’s 20 best by Observer Food Monthly. Photo: The Walled Gardens – I love that it’s a clear material that lets in light under the food. Everything becomes delicate, floating. We like to tell guests about the recycled glass project when they ask us about the special dishes, he writes in an email. FOOD FROM THE GARDEN: “The Walled Gardens” is concerned with short-distance production. The place welcomes eight guests per evening, and serves a twelve-course vegetarian menu. Photo: The Walled Gardens Heidi Skofsrud talks about glass as a new mother in love describes the world’s most unique baby. – The material has a good deal of its own will. You can try to make the glass do what you want, but if that day the glass has decided another way, then you have to deal with it. She laughs and knows it sounds floaty. It is difficult to explain in physics and chemistry, this with the feeling and will in the molecules. The most important thing is to show how diverse and robust glass is. And that recycled glass is a material we should see more of. Trendy restaurants with ecology high on the menu buy the message. Should the rest of us do it? A way of thinking for the future Even far away from Michelin, one can in any case recognize that glass is more stylish than plastic. Why, for example, does cola always taste better in a glass bottle? Scientists do not use the word will about the glass’s properties, but inert. This means that when the material is cooled and rigid, it does not react with other substances at all. – Glass is also completely sealed, unlike plastic. This means that the concentration of CO₂ in the soft drink is maintained, says Marit Kvalvåg Pettersen. She is a senior researcher at Nofima and teaches packaging technology. (In addition, she drinks a lot of Pepsi Max.) Nevertheless, it has become more and more common to sell soft drinks and other beverages bottled in plastic or aluminium. And there will be more. The wine bottle you were so good at throwing in the container, for example? The liquor store is working to get its goods onto plastic bottles with a deposit label. The reason is that it has a “significantly lower climate footprint than glass bottles, because they require less energy to produce, and because they are easier to transport”, as they write on their website. WARMER IN THE GLOHAUGEN: Eh, no not really. Melting glass requires energy. Photo: Javier Auris / news What is the place of glass in the future, seen with climate glasses on? – A big and difficult question, says Hanne Lerche Raadal, head of research at the Norwegian Institute for Sustainability Research. Glass is resource-intensive because it must have an extremely high temperature for reuse. The material also has a weight problem, compared to, for example, plastic. However, the quality of reuse of the raw material is high, and we consumers are very good at recycling our glass. We don’t get any concrete answers about the future of glass. Hanne Lerche Raadal still thinks the thinking behind Heidi’s bowls and decanters is gold. This is how we should think about all things: Using existing materials for new products. The glassblower against the current So far, Studio Sirkel is the only one in Norway to make something new out of the jam jars you conscientiously recycle. Hadeland Glassverk has considered using one furnace for recycled glass from others, but with the high electricity costs, that will have to wait for the time being. The association Norske glasskunstnere says the most important thing now is that an electricity support scheme is put in place quickly. Without one, it is likely that several glassblowers will have to shut down during the autumn. GLASS IN THE BOX: Still plenty of charge left Heidi began to melt at the start of 2022. Photo: Javier Auris / news Heidi says she is lucky. With the Sirkel recycling facility as an employer and one of the country’s most modern glass furnaces (which is significantly more energy-efficient, it has a tight door, among other things), production here is safe, despite the electricity crisis. The design firm Odd Standard feels that interest in the recycled glass products is growing among prestigious restaurants. – We have new orders from restaurants in Texas, another in the USA and one in London this autumn, Tonje Sandberg sums up. We have almost a hundred glassblowers in this country, but only Studio Sirkel has the same PR people as the rap group Karpe. In the workshop on the old industrial area Vaterland in Fredrikstad, Heidi has taken out a new lump of unpredictable glass mass from the furnace. GOING LIKE IT’S GOING: Right now the assignments are in the queue for Heidi and Studio Sirkel. Photo: Javier Auris / news – That many others should go from 0 to 100 per cent recycled glass is perhaps unrealistic. But to inspire to use such glass in Norway, and to think anew about glass, should be possible, she says. She is unlikely to give up. They have the will in common, she and the material she works with. Hello! Until now, I thought that it must have been imagined that soda tastes better in a glass bottle. Glad to have learned fasit, and everything else about glass! Feel free to write to me if you have input for the article, or tips for other exciting cultural matters. Have a good day! About the wine bottle you had to recycle:
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Heidi makes glass for Michelin restaurants with raw material from the trash – Culture
