Glass no longer being accepted for recycling by Greencastle hauler

Recycling's glass ceiling has cracked.

With more and more recycling companies no longer accepting glass as a recyclable commodity, the City of Greencastle's waste hauler, Republic Services, is the latest to join that list.

City residents' monthly utility bills, which were due Monday, carried a notation of the glass recycling change in a yellow announcement box, it was noted.

So it's time to toss those empty beer and wine bottles and old Mason jars in with the regular trash as Greencastle residents should no longer be placing glass products in recycling totes.

Several issues are at play in that development, city officials said at Monday afternoon's Board of Works meeting.

First, there is reportedly no market for recycled glass these days. Haulers say it has become less cost-effective to recycle it, and since recycling is a for-profit industry that relies on the ability to sell reclaimed materials at a profit, that makes it an easy decision.

Secondly, the material characteristics of glass work against it. Glass is fragile and often breaks in the hauling process. Glass is also heavy and added weight is an issue since it can add to recycling transportation costs.

When glass breaks in the recycling process, city officials explained, it pollutes other recyclables like paper and plastic with glass fragments and the recycler will often reject the entire load.

Broken glass is obviously also a safety issue in material handling.

Compounding the problem is that there are few glass recycling centers around the country, making for long, costly trips transporting the glass from material recovery facilities (MRFs) to recyclers. Chicago is reportedly the closest location for west-central Indiana MRFs.

Meanwhile, the City of Greencastle agreement with Republic Services for curbside trash and recycling still includes the following household waste recyclables:

-- Newspapers, colored and white paper, magazines, catalogs, junk mail and phone books.

-- Lightweight cardboard such as cereal boxes.

-- Corrugated cardboard (residents are asked to break down such boxes).

-- Plastic containers (Nos. 1-7, including milk jugs, water and soda bottles).

-- Aluminum, steel and tin cans.

All items can be mixed together in the designated recycling tote. Recycling is picked up every other week within the City of Greencastle.