In Edinburgh, Scotland, STEINERT MSort sorting technology is helping transform green and brown recycled glass into AFM® — a high-performance, glass-based filter media used in drinking water treatment, swimming pools, aquaculture, and industrial applications.

At Dryden Aqua Ltd., clean water begins with a secondary raw material that many would consider waste: used glass bottles. Through a highly controlled process, only green and brown glass is used as feedstock, while contaminants such as flint glass, metals, ceramics, and stones are removed through advanced sorting stages.

Precision is critical. Metal separators and MSort systems ensure that only the cleanest fractions remain. The result is a high-purity green and brown glass stream — internally known as “Gramber” — which becomes the basis for AFM® production in different grain sizes.

For Dryden Aqua, sorting is not just a pre-treatment step, but a core quality process. The collaboration with STEINERT MSort spans nearly 30 years, focusing on continuous development and extremely high material purity standards, especially for water-related applications.

As Jamie McBride, Operations Director at Dryden Aqua, highlights, the quality of the filter medium depends directly on the ability to process recycled glass with precision from the very beginning.

Together, Dryden Aqua and STEINERT demonstrate how advanced sorting technology can turn waste glass into a critical input for clean water solutions.