Trash..the new "renewable energy resource"

[Wannabefree]

I don't think ours recycles glass either. I repurpose most of mine. A pickle jar becomes a storage jar, etc. I thought about crushing glass and using it for my soil(heavy clay). Basically it is sand anyway. If I could grind it to not have sharp edges..I'd so use the darn stuff. The colors are just mineral deposits as I am to understand.

I have our household trash down to one bag too. I hate a bunch of garbage sitting in a bin all week We compost, recycle all aluminum, and use real plates, few paper towels(and most of those go to compost after use) and very little in the way of disposable items and/or prepackaged items get used in this house. That ay change a bit when I have 3 more kids to contend with, but it shouldn't make a huge difference.

 

[~gd]

I'll bet your recyling is contracted out to one of the big firms like Waste Mangement and they don't want to be bothered by hauling heavy glass to where it is recyled. There is a glass jar making plant in my old home town and they have mountains of glass to be recycled [called cullet] this melts first in the furnance and the RAW materials are added to it. With their setup they can't produce glass without the recycled materials. Plastic has hurt the glass plants badly. All those soda bottles used to be made of glass. Also many states have deposits on beverage bottles so they are returned to a store rather than being placed in the trash.
Where I live now NC 3M corp uses recycled crushed glass in the shingles they make plus reflective road signs and paint.
Come to think about it both of the recycled plants get their glass in by railroad.

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

gd~you don't live that far from me. Triangle? I would think NC/SC would share some of the same contractors for glass recycle.

WBF-I know what you mean about re-purposing. I buy very little glass as it is, and reuse as much as possible. Not much else I can do.

 

[~gd]

Well the city here uses Waste Management and they do NOT use recycle at pickup [what they do at the "transfer Station" is not known]. Outside the city [like I am] you can make your own arrangements but the recycle centers are included in your County tax bill if you use them or not. If you do use them there are four pages of instructions of what goes where and if they are open there is a county employee to make sure you follow all the rules. When they are not open they lock them up tight, they say it is to keep theives from walking off with all the good stuff like copper or aluminium. Rule one is that what you take in you can not take out. The first time I used them I had a bag of feed in the back of the truck as well as garbage. They made me leave it so of course I managed to lose a second bag when it "fell out of the truck" in front of the courthouse one dark night! I guess I'll never be a Southern Gentleman. [but the birds like me]

 

[Wannabefree]

Our town uses Waste Management too :/ I can't STAND that company

 

[hwillm1977]

Hubby works for Waste Management (as a truck driver now), I like them but that's because they've been really good to our family They don't pick up our garbage here.

Here our garbage is sent to the landfill, garbage has to be separated into 'Compostable' or 'Wet' that goes in green bags, and anything recycleable that goes in blue bags (the trucks used to pick up are divided). It's a $100 fine if you don't do it. At the landfill all the blue bags are opened by hand, sorted into types of garbage (that was hubby's first job there, standing in the conveyor line and removing cardboard, they have stations for each type of garbage...clear or coloured glass, cardboard/paper, plastic, etc...) and recycled... Compostable goes into the landfill where they use methane gas generators to power the entire operation, they are off grid (but do have hook-ups for backup)...

Our transfer station has scales... you're weighed when you go in, weighed once you've unloaded and you pay by the weight... nobody inspects your truck to make sure you completely emptied it, the guys at ours also make a pile of 'stuff' that people are allowed to take (usually construction garbage, like 2x4's plywood, drywall, etc... scrap metal they keep themselves).