The first image is of a silica mine, the second image is of a boron mine. Boro-silicate. That’s the kind of glass most commonly used for glass pipes, as well as for glass cookware, coffee pots, scientific beakers etc. because it’s a very strong glass at thinner, even-walled states which can handle extreme heat changes. Silica is an aggregate, commonly thought of as sand, so you’d think that we have tons of it. But we don’t, and we are using it up at an alarming rate for everything from glass windows to microchips. Only certain types of ‘sand’ are usable for glass, the kind with high silica content. And- I was completely unaware of the fact that silica, along with other classes of ‘aggregate’ (sand, gravel, etc.) are becoming an endangered resource until it was mentioned in the @blownawayseries although I did know that it’s not recyclable. You can’t take a bunch of broken pipes and melt them down in a pot and reuse the glass, because of the minerals in the colors, and the memory and stresses in the borosilicate (one could piece together broken sections, but Boro doesn’t like being past it’s melting state for long, and doesn’t play well with colors not carefully applied due to rates of cooling etc.) This is the reason that we need to be thoughtful with this resource. We have enough boron to last about 29 years, but harvestable silica is becoming harder and harder to access, and we are frankly running out. Please buy wisely, keep your pieces clean and safe, and consider what goes into your landfill. #glass #glassblowing #glassart #resourceguarding #🌏 #boro #boroglass #borosilicate #borosilicateglass (Please note that all of this information has been presented to the best of my knowledge. If anyone knows more, please feel free to share. Also google the bbc article “Why the world is running out of sand”. (at Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/COTdJeiHlVz/?igshid=1bwidpui6hbjb