If you’ve been collecting glass bottles, jars and jugs for recycling, you can head to South Park over the next two weeks and load them into the Pennsylvania Resource Council’s traveling glass bin.
The bin will be easily accessible and available at the South Park Ice Rink Parking Lot, according to PRC Collection Events Coordinator Trevor Freyvogel. Residents can bring their glass discards of any color from sunup to sundown, he said. The bin will remain there from Saturday until Nov. 20.
Allegheny County and its Parks Department worked with PRC again this year on the effort, and Freyvogel said the bin has been in all four county parks this summer. This is the last time for collections in the parks.
A PRC partner in the glass recycling effort, Michael Brothers Hauling and Recycling, has 10 permanent bins at various locations and five traveling bins at its two locations that can be moved to places like the parks.
Freyvogel said PRC has placed the bins in over a dozen locations this year, and so far 10 tons of glass have been collected and passed on to CAP Glass recycling centers in southwest or southeast Pennsylvania. Nearly 100% of the material dropped off at the bin can be recycled, according to a PRC flyer.
“From there, high-quality cullet (recycled glass) is shipped directly to glass mills in Pennsylvania,” it stated. “This process supports 12,000 jobs in the state — and it takes only about 30 days for glass to go from bin to bottle!”
The flyer explains that because of all this, “Glass is infinitely recyclable and in high demand.”
A number of municipalities have resumed collecting glass with their waste hauling contracts. PRC notes in its flyer that while this is important, mixing glass with other recyclables can lower the recoverable percentage.
“Waste companies do their best to recycle the glass. Unfortunately, because the glass gets mixed in with other plastics, paper and other recyclables, recycling facilities are only able to capture up to 70% of the glass for recycling,” it explained. “Some waste companies use the glass as alternative daily cover, a protective smell barrier for landfills. In a sense, this is repurposing but not actually recycling glass.”
By comparison the glass-only bins yield significant volumes of high-quality materials directly to the glass recycling industry. Drop-off collections treat the discarded glass as a commodity and prevent the contamination that can occur in single-stream collection systems, the flyer states.
Freyvogel said if the South Park bin appears to be full, residents should call the number on the bin and not leave their glass beside it. With that notification, PRC will call Michael Brothers to empty the bin and bring another one. So far that has not happened this year.
Each bin can accommodate 25 cubic yards in volume, meaning it can hold 4 to 5 tons of glass, he said.
PRC’s traveling glass bins program started in 2019, Freyvogel said. Then it was a pilot, and the bin moved around to events for just one day. Two years later with Allegheny County and its Park Department, the traveling bins stayed in place for two weeks to better serve residents.
This is the first stop for a bin at South Park this year, he said.
PRC’s glass recycling program is sponsored by Owens-Illinois Inc. and CAP Glass, and in addition to Michael Brothers, another partner is Tri-State Waste & Recycling.
Owens-Illinois, one of the world’s largest glass manufacturers, is aiming to use at least 50% recycled glass in its new products by 2030, the flyer stated. It already manufactures the glass bottles for Yuengling, the state’s popular beer.
PRC’s glass recycling map can help residents not close to South Park or unable to bring their glass over the next two weeks to find a drop-off glass recycling bin near them.
More information on how glass recycling works is available on the PRC website.
The South Park Ice Rink Parking Lot, located at 300 Corrigan Drive, Bethel Park, PA 15102
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.