Foam glass gravel is being used in Germany and other parts of Europe in much the same way as scoria and pumice in the US. The limited information I’ve found is mostly translated from German. Foam glass gravel would work great in earthbags. And since the closed-cell product does not absorb water, it remains a constant weight. The foam glass powder can be mixed with plaster, used in lightweight insulating floors and roofs, etc.
“Ecoglas® is a high quality recycled product consisting of 100% recycled glass and thus meets the highest quality requirements with outstanding properties.
5 arguments for foam glass: environmental, thermal insulation, waterproof, pressure-resistant, dimensionally stable. [Ed: more reasons: lightweight, fire resistant, rot resistant…]
Millions of pores therein and the permanently trapped gases provide for a high insulation value. The dimensional stability and high internal friction value make for enormous compressive strengths. Ecoglas® is absolutely free of pollutants and has an excellent energy balance.”
Source: Ecoglas
For information on how you can use foam glass as basement insulation, check out our Earthbag Building Blog.
Compare this product to expanded clay granules.
Note from Konstantin, a reader who tipped me off about foam glass: There are several producers of foamed glass gravel in Germany and Europe. Maybe there are some factories also in USA. Very crazy is that its super light. Only 100 to 160 kg per cubic meter!
Look at these sites:
Wiki
Foamglass core wall insulation info
Konstantine’s blog post about his visit to Ecoglas
Producers:
Misapor (best site, plus it’s in English)
Ecoglas
Geocell Schaumglas
Geoglas
Foamglas
Refaglass
US Producers:
Foamglass
When using foamglas you have the option to use it as a piece of board. This way the board is waterproof and joints can be glued(waterproof). It is also easy to cut custom sizes with any type of tool since it is porous.
This is mostly ideal when building a house with square (90 degree) corners. ie not rounded walls.
Price in sweden that I got was around $100 / m3(buying at least 1 truckload about 120 m3). With transportation. So its not dirt cheep but very cool. I have only got the price from the swedish factory and noting in sweden is cheap 🙂
Is this cost the cost for foam glass gravel or foam glass blocks
Thanks, Robin. That’s good to know about foam glass panels.
And I wasn’t sure about the cost, thanks. That’s way higher than scoria or pumice. But then again, they require very little processing.
P.S. My friend visited Sweden and loved it. His brother has a rock band there. I forget the band’s name, but they’re pretty well known.
There is a foamglass factory in Lithuania, http://www.stikloporas.lt