Natural's flexibility

A remarkable substance that's been part of everyday life since Egyptians developed the method of shaping molten sand more than 5,000 years ago. Centuries later, it provide a clear example of how versatile natural materials can be, and how even things which seem perfectly solid are capable of undergoing surprising changes.
Imagining you're walking along a sandy beach on a hot summer day. You reach for a bottle of sparking water from your bag. And once you're finished drinking, dutifully reclycle it in a nearby receptacle. It may be hard to imagine, but that transparent bottle was once not so different from the sand that is now between your toes.
Sand, also known as silica, or silicon dioxide, makes up 59% of the earth's outer layer, and at a molecular level is a simple combination of silicon and oxygen. Whether it's scooped from a beach dug from the desert, or otherwise mined, silica is the primary ingredient used in the manufacturing of glass. The process begins by heating silica to very high temperatures so that the solid sand and becomes a molten liquid.
What you're not seeing is the silicon dioxide molecularly looks like a perfectly symmetric three-dimensional honeycomb. The heat loosens the bonds between atoms making the rigid structure more fluid, or molten. Then chemicals such as calcium oxide, or lime, are added to make a strong, durable material that can be seen through. From there, the molten combination can be poured into bottle-shaped molds, and allowed to cool, becoming the perfect container for liquids.
Produced into countless shapes and sizes, the varied forms that glass takes provide an endlessly renewable vessel for carrying the liquids that we consume in our everyday lives. When you finish a beverage and toss the glass bottle into a recycling bin, it's ultimately crushed down to once again resemble sand.
Glassmakers can then add the recycled glass to silica, calcium oxide, and sodium carbonate, and heat it to make a new glass bottle. A process that can be repeated again and again, in a perpetual cycle, without the slightest loss in quality or purity. And so, as you go about your day, notice the glass you drink from, or the windows you look out of and be reminded of that potential for change - a perfect example of impermanence in the most solid-seeming things
Source: Headspace