When sand is heated in a furnace or kiln to 1700 degree celsius, it melts into lava-like gold. This molten sand, upon cooling, becomes glass! The texture of molten glass is like honey and it can be shaped by artisans into beautiful objects like vases and sculptures, into flat sheets for window panes, or anything really!

Glass can be recycled endlessly without any loss of quality or functionality. Not just that, it is reusable and refillable, making it one of the most sustainable materials around!

Unfortunately, not everyone in India practises proper waste segregation, which affects recyclability. But (Name), if you rinse out glass tubs/bottles/cracked dishes and hand them over to the raddiwala or your local recycling unit, nothing could be better.

Broken and waste glass bits used to make new glass is called cullet. Currently, new glass is made from 30% cullet and 70% sand. As we recycle more, the proportion of cullet can increase, and the cost of manufacturing glass can decrease.

Bigbasketeer, if you’ve watched the TV series Breaking Bad, you’d have seen the character of Jesse Pinkman making fried eggs in a glass frying pan.

But as cool as this looks, it’s a bad idea! See, glass does not conduct heat evenly. This means your food will be cooked patchily, some parts undercooked, other parts sticking to the pan, and yet other spots burned.

But as bad as glass is for stovetop cooking, it’s great for baking in an oven or heating food in a microwave. It does not react with the food and can stand high temperatures for a prolonged period of time. Word of caution: don’t pop just any glass dish into your over/microwave. Check the base of the dish for the “Microwave Safe” symbol first.

A wine glass looks different from a chai glass. A juice glass looks different from a shot glass. These shapes are not just a matter of aesthetics—their design is deliberate!

Take the chai glass for example. Its shape has evolved over the years based on our chai drinking habits. The conical shape makes it easy to stack (takes up less space) in small tea shops. The lined surface gives you a good grip without burning your fingers. The wide mouth with narrow base means vendors can easily carry them around in wire trays.

Wine glasses are wide in the mouth so that the drinker can sniff the aroma before sipping. They have a long stem so that the heat of your palm does not warm up the wine and make it lose flavour. This is the same reason beer mugs come with handles!