system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What happens to broken glass after it's thrown out? Does it just turn into fine grains again? Decomposed?
gpt
If it's recycled, it's sent to a plant where it's melted down and turned into new glass. 

If it's thrown into a garbage dump, it will sit there for however long it takes to be exposed to the elements again, (possibly 1000s of years or more) at which point it will start to break into smaller and smaller bits and gradually turn into sand/dirt over a long period of time. 

Glass is basically just sand that's been purified and melted into a single shape.