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Eddystone glass recycling company doubles operation at former Baldwin Locomotive Works building

AeroAggregates can now convert 140 million empty beer bottles a year -- one case of beer for every person in the Philadelphia area -- into useful construction material.

Thomas McGrath, president of AeroAggregates, samples the foamed glass aggregate after it emerges from a kiln, where it is made from recycled glass bottles.The company has installed a second kiln, doubling production.
Thomas McGrath, president of AeroAggregates, samples the foamed glass aggregate after it emerges from a kiln, where it is made from recycled glass bottles.The company has installed a second kiln, doubling production.Read moreDAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer

AeroAggregates LLC, which in 2017 opened North America’s first plant to recycle glass into a lightweight construction material, has added a second production line at its Eddystone factory, doubling capacity.

The company announced Tuesday it has completed installation of a second kiln at its 97,000-square-foot building that was part of the Baldwin Locomotive Works. The kilns heat crushed mixed glass, collected from curbside recycling programs, and transform it into foamed glass aggregate — a kind of gray, lightweight rock.

The two kilns, operating 24 hours a day, can consume about 32,000 tons of mixed glass a year, the equivalent of about 140 million empty beer bottles, said Archie Filshill, chief executive and cofounder of AeroAggregates. That’s nearly a case of beer a year for every person in the Philadelphia metropolitan area.

Filshill said the foamed glass material is getting wider acceptance in road-building and construction projects, including use as a fill material in the Chestnut Street bridge where it crosses the CSX rail lines. He said the material is also being used on green roofs and in landscaping, including construction of a park on the RCA Pier in Camden.

“I think a lot of people were waiting to see if we’d make a go of it, and the success has kind of proven itself out in the field,” he said.

He said the new kiln, imported from Germany, cost “several million” dollars, and the company plans to add three employees to its workforce of 15 to make and market the material.

Public officials hope the foamed glass material, which was developed in Europe, will create a market for the mixed glass collected in municipal recycling programs that typically gets landfilled.