Author Topic: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?  (Read 4462 times)

KarefulKactus15

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Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« on: December 31, 2015, 01:44:15 PM »
So we got our year end letter from the trash / recycling people for 2016.  Apparently they will no longer accept Glass starting January1st.  Apparently it is a high cost item.       Other than throwing it away,  is there anything better that I can do with glass?     I recycle to help the world n all so I feel silly just trashing all that glass, but there doesn't seem to be another reasonable solution to me.

BarkyardBQ

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2015, 01:51:45 PM »
In larger cities, metro areas, there are often several non-utility recycling facilities you could take it to yourself, and get the refund fees for yourself.

KarefulKactus15

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2015, 03:34:06 PM »
Well its not relevant any more.  They sent the letter out today and I guess it wasn't taken very well because the company just called everyone and said disregard the no glass lol.

VAR

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #3 on: January 02, 2016, 06:53:41 AM »
There was an article recently in my area about this issue. The recycling company still accepts the glass, but then is sending it on to the landfill quietly to avoid the backlash.
This is extra frustrating because I use some water to rinse out the glass items - if they are being sent to the dump anyway it's a sort of double waste.

Don Jean

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #4 on: January 02, 2016, 08:53:07 AM »
I repurpose glass containers as cups for drinks--particularly cool for cocktail parties. You can also use them as tiny pots for an indoor garden. They hold pencils and pens well or as a makeshift piggy bank. Some work well as as pitchers to have water in each room without having to go to the tap. Some also make excellent candle-holders. :)

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #5 on: January 02, 2016, 09:21:15 AM »
Recycle glass??

Can't remember the last time I threw glass in the recycling. I love me some repurposed jars.

bacchi

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #6 on: January 02, 2016, 09:38:42 AM »
My city makes decent money from plastics, aluminum, and cardboard. Recycling glass wipes out that profit by far. It's just not worth it to transport heavy glass around for the price they get.

VAR

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #7 on: January 02, 2016, 10:26:44 AM »
At some point you reach glassware saturation and you wish you could recycle it!
I"ve got a crazy amount of canning type jars that I use to make all my lunches for the week each sunday.

Uturn

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #8 on: January 02, 2016, 01:10:15 PM »
do you have a fiberglass plant near you?  I used to work at Owens Corning were they made insulation.  They brought in used glass by the semi truckload

Prairie Stash

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #9 on: January 02, 2016, 02:08:07 PM »
It's probably worse for the environment to ship the glass, fossil fuel use, than it is to make virgin glass. Glass is made from sand which is pretty easy to find, it's also cheap to buy. To recycle glass it needs to be ground down and reformed, a process as laborious as using sand. In a landfill it's stable and non toxic, not really an environmental issue. How stuff is recycled is interesting, it's worth investigating.

Polystyrene foam packaging also has the same problem. It can be recycled except it's expensive to transport as its 90% air. My depot doesn't accept it only because of its size/weight ratio. It could be used to make new products but it would cause more environmental harm than benefit in my cities case.

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #10 on: January 02, 2016, 08:39:41 PM »
At some point you reach glassware saturation and you wish you could recycle it!
I"ve got a crazy amount of canning type jars that I use to make all my lunches for the week each sunday.

I figure the lids will get rusty before that point, but it hasn't happened yet. I don't buy a lot of things that come in glass jars because I mostly cook from scratch or buy in bulk. Like I used to have spaghetti sauce jars, but now I buy the big plastic jugs at Costco.

maco

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #11 on: January 03, 2016, 07:49:32 AM »
To recycle glass it needs to be ground down and reformed, a process as laborious as using sand.
O_o Why grind it down? Can't they just melt it? Lampworkers and glass blowers work from melting pre-existing glass, so shouldn't factories that pour it into molds be able to do that too?

indesign

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Re: Can't recycle glass? Anyone else?
« Reply #12 on: January 03, 2016, 11:14:18 AM »
Container glass can be crushed and recycled indefinitely. The crushed glass (called "cullet") can be added to the raw materials, ultimately reducing the amount of energy required to melt the materials into molten glass. Some states (primarily west-coast) have a minimum percentage of cullet required to enter a furnace to avoid fines. It's a win-win as long as the glass doesn't have far to travel.

One of the biggest challenges in recycling glass is removing impurities, and this is especially true with single stream recycling. Not all glass can be used for container glass. You don't want your container glass to contain the same materials as your windshield (i.e. lead). When metals (think light bulb filaments) enter a glass furnace, it affects the quality of the glass. Over time, large amounts of metal impurities can affect the integrity of the furnace.