Making hollow blocks from crushed glass bottles

“FROM sand to sand” could be another version of “from dust to dust”. No, I am not talking about life after death, but the parallelism could be true if we could make new products from crushed glass bottles, including hollow blocks for building homes.

That is so because glass bottles are essentially made from sand, and if these are crushed into small grains, these could become sand again, or something that looks like sand.

Before globalization came along, it was very easy to recycle glass bottles, because most of the two-way glass bottles were made by the local manufacturers who needed to buy these back.

When globalization happened, all kinds of glass bottles of all sizes entered the market, and the importers of these one- way containers had no need to buy them back. In the old days, used glass bottles were bought by the piece by the junk shops, but they can’t do that too much now, because most of the bottles are one-way.

To solve that problem, I now propose that we should pass a law requiring the junk shops to buy used bottles by the kilo. I am sure that law will not be a burden for them, because they will make money from that.

Buying back by the kilo may be a new idea, but crushing used glass bottles to turn them back to sand is not a new idea, as it is already being done in many other countries.

One objection to this idea could be the electricity cost, but I think the power costs could be recovered through the sale of the finished products, including the new homes.

RICE EXPORT TARGET

Do not laugh now, but is it really possible for the Philippines to become a net exporter of rice?

Why not? Singapore has a “30 By 30” program that aims to produce 30% of their food supply by 2030. Why don’t we set that kind of a goal? To at least produce 100% of our rice requirements by a certain year?

Or even better, to be able to export a certain percent of our rice surplus by a certain year?

Singapore’s target is only six years away. In our case, we could probably make it 10 years away.

As I see it, this is not a laughing matter because we have all that it takes to become a net exporter of rice. Obviously, we have the land, we have the manpower, and we have the scientists who could help us achieve our goals.

As a matter of fact, our scientists are so good, such that they were pirated by foreign countries that are now producing the rice that we are importing.

Let us just have a reality check. We could really not continue importing our rice supplies. Not because we do not have the money to pay for the imports, but because the time may come when our foreign sources may become either unwilling or unable to sell to us, probably because of shortfalls or shortages in their own countries.

Instead of talking about import targets, the government should already be talking about export targets, and how to mobilize the resources that would make that happen. It is time to believe in ourselves./

Glass bottles are essentially made from sand, and if these are crushed into small grains, these could become sand again, or something that looks like sand.