eCullet

About eCullet

eCullet, Inc. operates as a technology-focused glass processing company, established in 1999 with headquarters in Palo Alto, California. The company was founded by Farook A.

The firm's core business revolves around its proprietary technology designed to process post-consumer glass. This technology sorts mixed, broken glass by color and removes contaminants like ceramics, porcelain, and stone. The output is a high-quality, furnace-ready material known as cullet, which is sold directly to glass container manufacturers. By supplying this refined recycled glass, eCullet enables its clients to decrease their reliance on virgin raw materials, leading to lower energy consumption and reduced greenhouse gas emissions during the manufacturing process.

A significant milestone in the company's history was the formation of a joint venture named Glass to Glass LLC with Owens-Illinois (O-I), the world's largest glass container manufacturer, in 2013. This partnership was established to invest in advanced glass sorting equipment to improve the supply of high-quality recycled glass for O-I's North American plants. As part of this joint venture, a new glass recycling and reprocessing facility was opened in Portland, Oregon, in December 2013. This facility processes glass from single-stream recycling programs, which often results in highly contaminated material that is difficult to reuse without sophisticated sorting.

The business model is centered on B2B sales of its processed cullet to the glass container industry. Clients, such as O-I, use the green, amber, and flint cullet to produce new glass containers, creating a circular economy for glass. The company has processing facilities in locations including Oakland, California, and formerly in Seattle, Washington, to serve its industrial client base.