Media

Glavel, a Vermont-based startup, plans to take recycled glass, grind it into powder and combine it with a foaming agent so it can be a substitute for stone gravel, which is used under building foundations and roads.

The relatively high price of this foam-glass foundation base material is offset by the lack of a need for rigid foam sub-slab insulation.

Burlington entrepreneur Rob Conboy has high hopes for Glavel. The foam glass aggregate he held on a recent afternoon looked like a stone but weighed no more than a sponge.

Vermont has had mandatory recycling since 2015. Is it working? And where does our recycling go, and what does it become?

Company CEO Rob Conboy said Glavel grew out of a Passive House conference he attended in Germany in 2016. He was scouting for European technology that could be used to lower the cost of energy-efficient construction in the U.S.

Highlighting the strength of glass over steel, and the thermally insulating properties over rigid foam board, Glavel creates a new system that can insulate without harmful environmental effects.

Building owners and developers in need of an alternative to petroleum-based sub-slab insulation and an overall boost to their sustainability characteristics, Glavel’s foam glass gravel is the solution.

Glavel’s manufacturing will transition to 100% renewable energy in summer 2020, dramatically slashing the embodied carbon emissions from the product.

Going foam-free is getting easier and more affordable.