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The Takeaway – Potential Solutions to Recycling Woes

November 17, 2015

NERC’s Glass Forum last week engaged more than 100 people in discussing issues around glass container recycling. Of course there were discussions about single stream recycling and options for collecting glass separately, including the City of Portland’s “curbside plus” program as coined by Dylan de Thomas, Resource Recycling’s Editorial Director and Keynote Speaker at the Glass Forum.

There were presentations from the major glass container manufacturers discussing the benefits that glass recycling can afford. Like other secondary materials, recycled glass (“cullet”) is integral to the manufacturing of new glass bottles and containers. There were also representatives from companies using glass for alternative products, from insulation to concrete applications.

Many speakers spoke to the significant value of container deposit laws as a benefit for glass recycling markets. The “bottle bill,” is loved or disparaged depending on what side of the fence you are on. The glass container manufacturers who presented at the NERC Glass Forum were universally in favor of deposit legislation as it ensures them a clean supply of glass cullet to use in the manufacturing of new glass containers. Lynn Bragg, President of the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) also stated GPI’s support for container deposit laws.

In the US, ten states have bottle bills: Oregon, Vermont, Michigan, Maine, Iowa, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, California, and Hawaii.

Despite the growth in areas served by curbside recycling and the ubiquitous spread of single stream collection to make recycling “easy” for Americans, recycling rates remain stagnant in this country at around 34%, far below many European countries; for example, rates range from 51% in Switzerland and the Netherlands, to 62% in Germany and 63% in Austria.

According to Susan Collins, Executive Director for the Container Recycling Institute and panelist at the Glass Forum, container recycling rates in states with deposit laws are far higher when compared to rates in non-deposit states; from 84% for aluminum recovery in deposit law states to just 39% in non-deposit states; 48% for PET in deposit law states to 20% in non-deposit states; and 65% for glass recycling in deposit law states, as compared to just 25% in non-deposit law states.

Deposit States vs Non Deposit States CRI

New and innovative recycling outreach, deposit legislation, mandatory recycling, landfill bans, and product stewardship are some of the tools we have to help raise recycling rates in this country and clean up the material stream.

Bringing stakeholders together—processors, manufacturers, trade association representatives, recycling coordinators, and others—through events such as NERC’s Glass Forum helps to set the stage. Hearing from all sides on the issues impacting recycling, and holding discussions on possible solutions from the perspectives of the various stakeholders, allow us to see potential paths toward greater sustainable materials management.

By Athena Lee Bradley

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