Can you recycle glass?

STM317 said:

Plastic "tubs" like yogurt containers

See my post above.  If you have a Whole Foods nearby they may take tubs that are #5 (which is like 70% of them).

Our single stream curbside recycling is pretty good but like ProDarwin pointed out, you need to really pay attention to what you put in it. One of the main issues that is not really pointed out, but needs to be, is that only plastic marked #1 or #2 is probably being recycled. #3 and up really doesn't have a process or a market, so those items are most likely being sorted at the recycling center to then be trashed. I'll have to look into the Whole Foods #5 option. EDIT. I did, WF collection seems to be on hold. See More Here

Also, if you shred bills, etc, don't recycle it. Shredded paper cannot be processed at the facilities.

If you really want to know what can and can't be recycled, take 5 minutes and call your town, city, or counties recycling and/or solid waste coordinator. They'll have the best info.

hobiercr said:

If you really want to know what can and can't be recycled, take 5 minutes and call your town, city, or counties recycling and/or solid waste coordinator. They'll have the best info.

This can be really frustrating.  Our city website info, the info at the satellite recycling center, and the info at the landfill recycling center are all conflicting in several areas.

On a related note, the EPA just released a new recycling strategy.  At the moment it is broad strokes with lots of room for failure, but at least its something?

In reply to ProDarwin :

Oh, I get it. Through some volunteering with my city I was able to meet our recycling coordinator. She gave me the "truth" of what is actually being recycled which differs from the City website and what is printer on the recycling bins.

I live in the same area as David - no glass recycling.

I've taken to hoarding glass jars, which is probably driving Tom insane, but is also surprisingly handy. I use them for mise en place when I'm cooking something with a lot of chopping and prepping, and my sourdough starter lives in a repurposed pickle jar.

Our area's single-stream recycling switched up a couple of years ago along with the no-glass change, and they sent us a handy refrigerator magnet in the mail that explains exactly what we can and can't put in the bin. Basically we can only recycle unsoiled cardboard and paper (no oily pizza boxes, and with anything like envelopes and pasta boxes with a plastic window, I have to make sure to remove the plastic), plastics 1 & 2, and aluminum cans. Plastic bags that aren't reusable (have holes in them) get put in a big bag to be whisked away to a grocery-store-front recycling bin at a later date.

Here in California they have recycling.  A bin for glass, paper or metal.  They recycle plastic with a 1 or 2.  Beverage containers are  a nickle a piece.  I take those in to the recycle place myself.

Also starting a program in January where all food waste has to go in a special can for pickup, all residential and commercial trash.  They provided a can for the building where my office is.  Can was stolen within a few days.   I bet they  generate a LOT of revenue from fines.

I have wondered for a while now where Dustless Blasting gets their crushed glass from.  The stuff isn't exactly cheap.  

tuna55 said:

I am under the impression [citation needed] that glass doesn't really add pollutants to the ground like plastic does, and it's not helping the supply chain like metal does.

 

I could be wrong, though.

Pollution wise, yea, glass is fine.  There's nothing in it that's bad, and if it is bad, it's typically bound up so much that it's still not a problem.  Glass is so good, actually, that there were plans back in the late 80s, early 9o's to vitrify nuclear waste directly in the ground- so that it would (theoretically) be encapsulated in something like glass.   In Situ Vitrification.  Working on that is where I learned how much power ~250kW is.

In terms of recycling glass, if commercial glass is anything like art glass (and I'm pretty sure it is) adding old glass reduces the temp that is needed to turn the raw materials into glass.  So where recycling glass is green is the less energy it takes to make new glass.  But that is only based on the art glass I've worked with a while ago- and extrapolating that to commercial glass.  And really, they are a lot closer together than borosilicate glass is to either, commercial glass just hardens at a higher temp, and it more robust when cooling (takes less annealing).

ProDarwin said:

STM317 said:

Plastic "tubs" like yogurt containers

See my post above.  If you have a Whole Foods nearby they may take tubs that are #5 (which is like 70% of them).

Good to know. Unfortunately, the closest WF is about 35 minutes away, in a direction that I rarely travel.

Erich said:

Bottles can absolutely be washed and reused but it pretty much never happens in practice. 

I remember getting Pepsi in 16 ounce glass bottles (eight to a box!) and you could return them to the store.  I was told that they got washed and reused.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Erich said:

Bottles can absolutely be washed and reused but it pretty much never happens in practice. 

I remember getting Pepsi in 16 ounce glass bottles (eight to a box!) and you could return them to the store.  I was told that they got washed and reused.

I remember that as well.  And how much better it tasted before hi fructose corn syrup and plastic bottles.  

I also remember broken glass all over the place.  I remember constantly cutting my bicycle tires in the alley behind the house on shards of broken bottles and the sound they made when someone cracked another kid upside the head with one.  

Ah the good old days. 

Mine goes out for recycling pickup on trash day.  Then that recycling truck promptly lines up with the trash truck at the landfill and dumps in the same hole.

Smoke and mirrors.

I wish returnable beer and soda bottles were still a thing like they are in some 3rd world countries.  Something very satisfying about getting a flat of High Lifes in a cardboard box, and once you had 8x24 packs, you had enough to go get you a 24 pack on the arm.  It was like a savings account back in college.  

Returnable/refillable bottles are the ultimate in recycling.