Eric Forbes understands the challenges posed by recycling glass. It breaks easily, which can be destructive for waste management equipment and increase costs. It’s heavier than other items. People will combine it with household trash, which causes other issues.
But the program he leads is attempting to push past these issues and do something that isn’t being done much in the Northern Virginia area or even nationally, according to Environmental Protection Agency data.
“We knew glass recycling needed a lift in the region,” Forbes, the director of recycling, engineering and environmental compliance for the Fairfax County Solid Waste Management Program, tells U.S. News. “It wasn’t truly getting processed in the single-stream system.”
Prior to the start of the program – which the county has dubbed the “purple can club” due to the appearance of the recycling bins – Forbes says that most glass was passed through the single-stream recycling system as waste, and still ended up in a landfill with “zero pounds” of glass truly being recycled.
The glass recycling plan started as a pilot program in spring 2019, with 12 purple bins sprinkled throughout the county. They averaged about 100 pounds of glass recycled per week in a county with nearly 1.1 million residents.
As of Jan. 31, the county had recycled approximately 4.8 million pounds – or about 2,400 tons – of glass through 26 purple can locations, all of which weren’t being recycled in the single-stream system a year ago, according to Forbes. The program is now averaging 1,000 pounds of glass recycled per month, which includes a noticeable uptick since the county stopped collecting glass in curbside bins in October 2019, he says.
“It’s quite a significant increase,” Forbes says, noting that his office went from emptying the bins approximately once per week to now emptying some locations three times per week. The glass is picked up by a truck and dropped off at a processing plant in Lorton, Virginia, he says. Rough cost estimates for the program include $650,000 for the glass processing machine and site work, $10,000 per year for maintenance and approximately $50 per ton for transportation and collection, Forbes says. But the program should yield substantial savings for the single-stream system, he adds.
Recycling glass isn’t just a challenge in Virginia. Of the more than 11,000 tons of glass generated in the U.S. in 2017, just 3,000 tons were recycled, according to EPA data. Approximately 7,000 tons ended up in landfills. The EPA shows similar glass distribution data for 2016 and 2015.
In Baltimore County, Maryland, officials recently admitted that glass hadn’t been recycled in the county in seven years but still urges residents to put the material in their recycling bins, according to The Baltimore Sun.
“Since at least 2013, Baltimore County, like other jurisdictions across the state of Maryland, could no longer recycle glass at a municipal facility due to technical and financial limitations,” said Sean Naron, spokesman for Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., in a written statement provided to U.S. News. “The county is in the process of resolving the issue and remains in discussions with an independent vendor to identify the appropriate market and processes to recycle glass.”
“Recycling markets have downturns and upturns,” said Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, in a written statement provided to U.S. News. “MDE is aware of concerns and issues affecting local jurisdictions, including the challenges relating to glass. The counties do not report to us the end markets for collected recyclables. We do know that some counties send glass to a facility for use as cover material at landfills, which is a form of recycling.”
But issues with recycling glass have more to do with the process, not the product, says Scott DeFife, the president of the Glass Packaging Institute, a trade association.
“I think the question is not, ‘Is there a problem with glass recycling because of the glass?'” DeFife says. “There’s a problem with glass recycling because of the single-stream system not being properly invested in. … That’s where the problems are right now.”
With the single-stream system, he says, there are several places where things can break down. Consumers can put items in their recycling bin that don’t belong in it. Glass can also get improperly crushed by the haulers before it can get sorted properly at a facility, depending on what kind of truck they are using. This is a problem because it creates contamination between other materials.
Forbes notes that the Fairfax County program has had its own share of “growing pains,” such as illegal dumping and issues with cleanliness around the purple can sites. But his team is trying to educate the public by “making it fun,” decorating the bins with monsters and quotes.
“It’s less convenient for our residents; we get that,” Forbes adds. “But it’s really about getting glass recycling sustainable in the future.”
But he says the overall success of the purple can club has sparked interest from other areas.
A private company that does glass recycling in Pennsylvania and representatives from Washington state requested information about the Fairfax County program, Forbes notes.
Dave Bennett, communications manager for the Washington Department of Ecology, tells U.S. News via email that recycling is managed locally in Washington – with state funds provided to assist efforts – and glass is handled differently depending on the location. Thurston County, Washington, for example, removed glass from its list of recyclables that can be included in a commingled bin, he adds.
DeFife, from the Glass Packaging Institute, says a company called Ripple Glass has found success in Kansas City, Missouri, and other cities in the region. Ripple Glass started at a local brewery and eventually launched a drop-off concept – also with purple bins – that led to the construction of a special processing plant, according to its website. Glass is now processed from more than 80 communities at the plant. Forbes confirmed that his team referred to Ripple Glass’ model when developing the Fairfax County program.
Other locations in Virginia, such as Virginia Beach, James City County and Loudoun County, reached out to Forbes’ team, he notes. Tony Hayes, a recycling specialist at Loudoun County’s Department of General Services, is coordinating that county’s effort, which he says started through a December 2019 initiative by Phyllis Randall, the chairperson of the local Board of Supervisors.
“I believe that when people put their recyclables in, they should trust that their county, their state or their federal government is actually doing our due diligence and actually doing the recycling because they’re doing their part, and we have to do our part also by making sure the program’s there,” Randall says.
She says that the Board of Supervisors staff researched what other places were doing with glass and found that Fairfax County had a “fairly robust” program. And similar to Fairfax County’s purple can club, Loudoun County’s glass recycling initiative will start as a pilot program. It will begin in the early spring in a “best-case scenario,” Hayes says. There will be a few drop-off centers for glass to start, but the program will grow “if everything works as expected,” he adds.
Glass is being collected with single-stream recycling on curbsides, but is “probably ending up in landfills,” Hayes says, and the county struggles with the same contamination issues that Forbes and DeFife describe.
“We believe that collecting glass separately from other recyclable materials is a step in the right direction, but doing so in a cost-effective manner that won’t negate the environmental benefit associated with glass recycling will be key,” Hayes adds.
Despite his own challenges in Fairfax County, Forbes is optimistic, thanks to the early success of the purple can club.
“The community is thirsty, for a lack of a better word, for this recycling effort,” he says.
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