Very good news on glass

R.I. Glass On Path to Being Recycled

By TIM FAULKNER, ecoRI.org News staff

JOHNSTON — Glass could be on its way to getting recycled in Rhode Island. In recent weeks, the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) began shipping a limited quantity of glass to a recycler in Massachusetts.

The state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) mandates the collection of glass for recycling. But the high cost of shipping to a recycler has prevented glass collected at the curb from getting remade into new bottles. 

For several years, glass brought to the state recycling facility had been crushed and used as daily cover for the landfill. In 2012, the General Assembly passed a bill that prohibited the use of glass in daily cover in order to address odor problems at the Central Landfill. Since July, all glass has been buried with other trash.

Recycling glass in Rhode Island is cost prohibitive due to low demand and the distance to ship it. Sand, the raw material for glass, is inexpensive and plentiful. Shipping used glass to a bottle maker exceeds the cost of making new bottles.

In fact, demand for glass bottles from beverage makers has dropped dramatically in recent years as plastic-bottle use has proliferated. Beer companies are now the most consistent user of glass bottles, but aluminum cans are quickly becoming the more preferable container.

As part of a pilot program, RIRRC has shipped 18 loads of mixed glass to Strategic Materials Inc. (SMI) in Franklin, Mass. Since the end of January, 435 tons have been shipped at a cost of $3,600. Used paper and plastic by contrast is shipped to recyclers for a profit. The expense to ship glass, according RIRRC officials, will eat into the profits that are ultimately shared with Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns.

SMI has so far accepted the glass without charging a tipping fee. A fee is a possibility, unless more paper can be removed from the glass. Shredded and small bits of paper fall through the sorting system at the landfill's Material Recycling Facility and end up sticking to glass.

RIRRC is encouraging the public to place shredded paper in plastic bags, bring paper to free shredding events or to compost the paper.

“We ask for everyone's help in reinforcing the correct way to shred paper, to give glass recycling a fighting chance,” Krystal Noiseux, recycling program manager at RIRRC, wrote in a recent report.

The best solution to paying for glass recycling at all is to keep it local, she said. “The long-term fix for Rhode Island's glass remains having a glass manufacturer open right here.”