Tag Archives: glass recycling

Like many Westporters, Stephanie Bass is a regular visitor to the transfer station.

Unlike some of her fellow trash-tossers, she knows what goes where.

Stephanie reminds “06880” readers that there are several big bins. One is marked “Cardboard.” Others say “Paper only” and “Glass.”

So why, she wonders, do folks toss non-paper waste into the “Paper only” bin?

She guesses that up to one-quarter of the garbage is thrown in the wrong spot.

In addition, she notes, there is composting — and “the huge place we can throw anything else, like paint and aerosol cans.”

Mixed trash at the recycling station. (Photo/Stephanie Bass)

Stephanie loves the people who work at the transfer station. They help her back her car up, while other drivers “climb up my back, honk or dash out” past her.

When she was on crutches from a broken leg, they helped her unload her truck. “They are heroes,” she says. (I know: I have highlighted them several times as “Unsung Heroes.” Click here, and here, and here, and here, to see.)

Stephanie assumes that dumping trash in the wrong bin is not illegal. But, she wonders, what happens to now-contaminated paper waste? Can it still be separated, and recycled?

How much extra does it cost to do that?

Westport’s transfer station.

She asks if a local group, like Boy Scots, can be on hand to help Westporters separate their garbage properly (“and embarrass them,” she adds).

Westporters are a smart bunch, she notes.

Why then are some not bright enough to put their trash in the correct bins?

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Recycling information is available on the town website. It says:

While it is convenient for residents to mix recyclables in the same bin, the sorting process for mixed recycling is not perfect. Machines and employees at the MuRF (Multi Re-use Facility) cannot remove all the contamination that occurs in the recycling bin, and this contamination can result in rejected loads that end up in the landfill.

What contamination?

Most of us have seen the partially filled containers, the soggy boxes, the plastic bags, and the shattered bottles that make their way into some recycling bins. The partially filled containers, the soggy cardboard boxes, the plastic bags, and the broken glass, all represent types of contamination that can compromise the quality of our recycling.

Broken glass is a big problem.

Broken shards of glass can attach themselves to the other recyclables in the bin and contaminate them. Conversely, the glass bottles and jars can also be contaminated by the bits and pieces of paper, bottle caps, metal, and straws from the mixed recycling. The MuRF can either pay to have the glass cleaned, or if that is not possible, the contaminated glass is sent to landfills to be used as a type of alternate cover.

There must be a solution.

The solution is simple: When you separate glass from mixed recycling, each recycling stream is freed from contamination by the other, and the value for each recycled commodity improves. The clean, separated glass can be sold and recycled into new bottles and jars or other products such as industrial filler for cement, and the higher quality mixed recycling commodities become more marketable.

How can I recycle glass separately?

In a cooperative effort, the Town of Westport, Sustainable Westport, and the Oak Ridge Materials Recovery Facility, have arranged for a separate, ‘GLASS ONLY’ recycling container (pictured above) at the Westport Transfer Station.  Please Remember:

• Rinse your glass containers and remove lids or caps.
• Glass bottles and jars only.
• No mirror or window glass, drinking glasses, glass, ceramic, or clay, plates, cups, pots or bakeware and no lightbulbs
• Recycle your clean bottles and jars during regular Transfer Station hours.

(For more information from the town website, click here.)

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