by NICOLE MOORADIAN
You may have noticed that Rockbridge County recycling centers recently stopped accepting glass.
There is no more local market for it, according to County Recycling Coordinator Kim Thompson.
“We don’t have a way of getting rid of the glass that we take in,” she said.
Previously, the county sent its glass recyclables to Cycle Systems in Roanoke, but Cycle Systems stopped accepting glass about a year ago.
Until now, the county used the spare glass, harmlessly ground, at the landfill as filler. But the county no longer has any room for the excess glass.
Thompson said she hopes the ban on glass recyclables is temporary. She is seeking a new place to send the glass. Potential options include a quarry in Harrisonburg and a new Buena Vista business.
The Harrisonburg quarry would use crushed glass as filler in road paving.
Auto Recyclers, a business that is moving into Buena Vista in the near future, would also use the crushed glass to fill a large hole.
Glass recycling has become a problem in other states. Florida, for example, is now exploring using finely crushed glass mixed with sand to “re-sand” eroded beaches.
States that have a “bottle bill,” such as California, New York, Oregon, and Connecticut, are not experiencing as many problems with an overflow of glass recyclables.
With a bottle bill, every time a consumer purchases a glass bottle, he or she pays a small deposit, usually a few cents. When the bottle is emptied, the consumer can bring the bottle to a recycling center for a refund of the deposit.
The bottle is then cleaned, re-filled and sent back to stores.
Rockbridge County recycling center
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Feb. 9, 2007
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Claudette Artwick
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd