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Cracked Windshield...Repair or Replace?

When you have a crack in your windshield, there are only two choices to repair it; replace the entire windshield or repair the crack.

If you choose to repair the crack, you choose to save yourself a high cost replacement.

To determine whether repair is possible or not, look at the crack.

If it is older than thirty days, wider than 1/8” or longer than twelve inches, the windshield should be replaced.

If it is smaller than this, take your vehicle to a glass repair shop.

Good repair shops carry more than one glass type to choose from, and they will be able to repair the crack as well. In a repair situation, the crack will still be visible, but as a hairline fracture instead of a chasm, and the crack won’t spread.

Ask the shop to estimate the cost of a repair and a replacement, allowing you to make the best decision for your situation, and compare more than one shop.

Generally replacement will be more costly than repair, but again that depends both on the shop and the condition of your windshield. Shop around to make sure you get the best deal.

Check to see if the shop guarantees their work, and for how long. Quality shops repair the glass and their work.

Check with your insurance company; some policies cover chip repair and/or windshield replacements. Also your insurance company will oftentimes work with specific shops in your area to get you the best deal, or at least give you the names of places to shop.

When it comes to a cracked or chipped windshield, don’t wait; have your windshield repaired before it’s too late, resulting in an expensive replacement.

Today's Trash to Pave Tomorrow's Roads

Plastics seem to be the new villain on the environmental scene.

Cities including San Francisco, Baltimore and Boston have imposed plastic bag bans on retailers.

Ireland taxes plastic bags, and national grocery stores across the U.S. are offering inexpensive, reusable totes or paper bags to their customers.

But plastic is everywhere.

A cheap petroleum product, plastic finds it way into everything from clothing to computers to artificial limbs. Plastic can be lightweight, sturdy and durable - and that's the problem.

Lightweight bags blow into trees and oceans, where they suffocate wildlife. Plastic doesn't break down easily in landfills, and Americans discard 50 million to 80 million plastic bags each year.

However, plastic is too versatile to discard completely. Scientists are developing biodegradable plastics that don't require fossil fuels. But until eco-friendly plastics become widely available, Americans need to find better ways to reuse their plastic.

Today, recycled plastic mostly ends up in non-recyclable secondary products, like textiles or plastic lumber. Americans can cut down use by reusing plastic containers. But to reduce the plastics entering landfills, scientists need to create long-lasting products that use recycled plastics.

One Hungarian technology company, Power of the Dream Ventures, Inc., has created two products that use recycled plastics in innovative ways.

Turbocrete allows every waste material but metal - plastic, glass, organic and inorganic compounds - to be mixed into concrete. Turbocrete hardens and behaves like conventional concrete. Should builders use this technology, the trash currently entering landfills could help construct schools and roads.

The company has also developed a way to fill potholes with plastic granules. Filling potholes usually requires special equipment -- but the plastic granules would only need to be heated on location, saving energy and fuel costs. The plastic completely fills and waterproofs potholes.

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