I know that glass can be recycled, but do you have local glass recycling facilities? Our town stopped collecting it a while ago, and I get the reasons--no market, pain to sort and transfer, etc.
Just wondering.
I know that glass can be recycled, but do you have local glass recycling facilities? Our town stopped collecting it a while ago, and I get the reasons--no market, pain to sort and transfer, etc.
Just wondering.
My garbage service comes with a co-mingled recycling bin 3 times as large as the garbage bin and a small box for glass.
No idea what happens to it when it leaves my curb though
Yup. Beverage containers are acceptable. Strangely though glassware is not.
We don't recycling pickup here (I'm just outside the city limits) but the depot takes glass. Only sorting is colored vs clear.
Asa - by glassware you mean things like food storage containers? Might be borosilicate or some other glass that doesn't melt like it's supposed to :)
In reply to Keith Tanner :
Hillsborough County does call out serving wear as not being eligible, but also specifies pint glasses when it mentions what isn't recyclable. Other things are included in the list, but I don't think pint glasses are typically borosilicate.
Our area stopped accepting glass several years ago. Seems broken glass is a hazard for workers, it's hard on machinery and there's no money in recycling it.
My county got called out for not actually recycling any of the plastic that it has collected for more than then past decade within the past year in a half. They still collect it with mixed recycling, but I suspect that it's still just getting trashed.
https://baltimorebrew.com/2021/07/30/study-finds-just-2-2-of-baltimores-trashed-plastic-is-recycled-while-47-is-burned/
(Please just reference the article for the statistics and nothing else noted within it as I'm not attempting to start a fishing trip.)
Mr_Asa said:In reply to Keith Tanner :
Hillsborough County does call out serving wear as not being eligible, but also specifies pint glasses when it mentions what isn't recyclable. Other things are included in the list, but I don't think pint glasses are typically borosilicate.
That does seem unlikely.
Yeah, they stopped recycling glass maybe 2 years agoish around here (East TN). I'm not convinced the recycle bin truly gets recycled (curbside here), but It makes us feel like we're doing our part.
Funny, I've started preferring beer in aluminum cans because I know I can recycle metal. Check out Jason Mamoa's canned water. Weird, yes. Environmentally conscious? Also yes, surprisingly.
I can recycle it here. The next town over stopped taking it though.
Recycling rules are super weird here though. My sorting system makes me look like a crazy person.
wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) said:Funny, I've started preferring beer in aluminum cans because I know I can recycle metal. Check out Jason Mamoa's canned water. Weird, yes. Environmentally conscious? Also yes, surprisingly.
That very much depends on your frame of reference. It isn't when compared to tap water.
We (New Zealand) can generally recycle glass, metals, paper and some plastics. I have kerbside recycling every week on a fortnightly cycle alternating between glass and mixed.
I believe most of the glass gets recycled into granules which is then mixed into bituminous concrete (tar seal) to create a higher grip surface.
I recall reading a few years back that in civilised Europe the lifecycle of a Coke can between filling, consumption, recycling and refilling is around 6 weeks 
R
Our trash company in the area doesn't recycle, neither did my last one. I've started saving paper and cardboard for biobricks at least.
Glass jars and bottles, yes. I'm not sure what differentiates them from glassware and windows and all in terms of what they're made up of, but that's been the guideline since I was a kid in S.F. 40 years ago. Back then it was taking stuff to a depot and sorting by color ourselves; currently it's curbside pickup and they do the separation of colors.
To some extent, I assume that the simplest answer is that e.g. brown glass can be melted back down and turned into brown bottles, but not if you get too many green bottles in the same batch... But it also feels like the sort of thing where types of glass have different ingredients, some of which are probably not suitable for bottles etc.
They take glass in our recycling here, no sorting. When I was in college, the town's recycling center had bins for clear, green, and brown glass, so when you dropped glass off you sorted it for them.
It just does in the giant all-in-one recycling bin. no idea what happens once it leaves my yard.
nderwater said: and there's no money in recycling it.
I hear this commonly about why we can't recycle many materials, and it puzzles me. There's no money in dumping stuff in the landfill, and we routinely do that. Is the environmental benefit of recycling of no value? Btw, this isn't aimed at ndrwater - it is commonly expressed by local governments explaining why they don't recycle. Major cognitive dissonance for me.
We have non-separated curbside recycling through outlet local town. I assume they actually recycle it instead of just sending it to the landfill.
We can recycle all colors of glass, without restrictions that I know of. Also aluminum and steel, polyethylene, polypropylene, and paper / cardboard.
No aluminum foil and no polystyrene or acrylics.
In reply to Turboeric :
Landfilling is cheaper, so it loses less money than recycling.
Turboeric said:nderwater said: and there's no money in recycling it.I hear this commonly about why we can't recycle many materials, and it puzzles me. There's no money in dumping stuff in the landfill, and we routinely do that. Is the environmental benefit of recycling of no value? Btw, this isn't aimed at ndrwater - it is commonly expressed by local governments explaining why they don't recycle. Major cognitive dissonance for me.
Collecting and sorting glass is a wasted effort if there is no buyer for it. "Recycling" only actually saves things from a landfill when someone else is willing to invest in turning your trash into something useful.
https://www.wasteservicesofthebluegrass.com/residential/recycling/
This is my local recycling guidelines. Not a lot really and it appears I'm guilty of tossing some inappropriate stuff into the blue bins.
We should do better.
I am under the impression [citation needed] that glass doesn't really add pollutants to the ground like plastic does, and it's not helping the supply chain like metal does.
I could be wrong, though.
My county offers no recycling at all. As in there's not even a place to take it to at all.
Most "recycling" operations now use glass as a part of the daily landfill cover. Landfills have to cover the day's dumping with at least six inches of non-garbage material, and recycled glass is part of that.
Bottles can absolutely be washed and reused but it pretty much never happens in practice.
How recycling works for me here. I'm probably one of 10 people paying attention to this/doing it the right way.
We take ours in to the county recycling center. They have very specific hours and don't even let you get out of your vehicle anymore. You drive in and pop the trunk. They look at what you've got, unload what they can take and send the rest away with you. This has supposedly cut down on a ton of contamination and improper stuff ending up in the wrong places, but there's not much rhyme or reason to it. As far as I can tell, we can recycle glass food containers, metal cans of all types, and plastic bottles of various shapes and sizes (numbers don't seem to matter). Everything has to be rinsed. Plastic "tubs" like yogurt containers, clear "clamshells" that lots of produce comes in, carry out containers, etc are all on the naughty list for plastics and things like windows and mirrors are on the naughty list for glass.
Cardboard and paper go to a different facility.
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