Progressive Planet Solutions is located on Sarcee Street in Kamloops.
(SHANNON AINSLIE / iNFOnews.ca)
March 21, 2025 - 6:00 AM
A Kamloops company turning recycled glass into a cement ingredient was awarded $4.6M in federal government funding for a pilot project earlier this month.
Located on Sarcee Street, Progressive Planet Solutions turns post-consumer glass into what it calls PozGlass, a low-carbon ingredient that can be used in cement.
“Portland cement is the most common kind of cement used around the world, and its production accounts for over 7 per cent of the annual global emissions of CO2 that we generate as humans, it’s extremely carbon intensive,” said CEO Steve Harpur. “With PozGlass, we can replace up to 50% of portland cement.”
It was by accident that Harpur and his engineers discovered PozGlass, as well as the ability to sequester carbon in limestone through a series of chemical reactions using the wastewater from wet grinding the glass.
“My engineer worked for one of the biggest metallurgical firms in the world and they did some of the original high-level work on PozGlass and sort of by accident, they recommended we wet down the glass and then we saw it release a chemical and that’s when the light went on,” Harpur said.
When the glass is ground in water it releases the sodium, forming PozGlass.
When the waste water from the wet grinding mixes with CO2 from the company’s flu stack, it creates soda ash which is full of sodium carbonate.
That sodium carbonate can be used in making cat litter or it can be combined with a common byproduct of the oil sands called pickling salt to make limestone.
There are millions of litres of pickling salt spread on roads in the Pacific northwest as a de-dusting agent.
“When it dries it’s a very fine limestone that is used in the pulp and paper industry, and for it to turn back into CO2 you’d have to heat it to 850 degrees,” Harpur said. “It’s a permanent carbon sequester and a useful product made from several waste streams.”
The limestone is repurposed into other eco-friendly products while the PozGlass becomes an eco-friendly cement replacement.
The post-consumer glass is sourced from Recycle BC that manages glass that consumers don’t pay a deposit on, and Progressive Planet is one of two entities approved to accept it.
The funding for the pilot project to produce PozGlass on the company site is from Sustainable Development Technology Canada and covers a four-year period with the first phase of construction to being in October, according to a recent media release by Progressive Planet.
The first part of operations will dry process the glass to remove contaminants and create coarse glass powder. The second part, which is set to be constructed in 2026 will be for wet grinding the powder.
The PozGlass will be purchased by LaFarge Canada at up to 3,500 metric tonnes annually, the release said.
Reusing materials that would otherwise be wasted is key for Progressive Planet. The company also creates sustainable, absorbent products for agriculture and animal health that are shipped to major retail outlets in North America.
In February, the company announced its investments in robotics that will modernize operations of two large production lines.
Harpur is a chartered professional accountant who comes from a family of scientists, doctors and pharmacists. Roughly 15 years ago he changed careers to embrace his passion for inorganic chemistry and material sciences.
Go here to learn more about Progressive Planet Solutions.
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