The Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) held a Glass Recycling Forum in Providence, RI in November, bringing regulators, collectors, processors, and manufacturers together to explore problems and possible solutions for glass recycling.
Regulators from state and local agencies across New
England and surrounding states expressed regret at switching to single stream
due to the high rates of contamination, particularly for paper and glass, and
advised their colleagues to preserve dual stream where possible; dirty MRFs and
one bin collection, when mentioned, where uniformly rejected as terrible ideas.
Recyclers interested in pushing for a return to dual stream or investigating
separate collection in their areas for paper and/or glass feedstock would
likely find support. However, manufacturers in particular praised the quality
of cullet from bottle bill states; this could lead to a renewed push for bottle
bills in 2016.
Much of the conversation revolved around how to
improve quality (suggestions included bottle bill legislation, public-private
partnerships for separate glass pickup, and investments in different sorting
techniques and technology) and find alternate uses for glass unsuitable for
cullet, with processed glass aggregate (PGA) and the development of new
specifications to cover other grades of material gathering the most interest.
The presentations were heavy with potentially useful information such as
average contamination rates for various materials, locations of glass
processing facilities and MRFs across the nation, and potential energy savings
from increased cullet usage in the manufacture of new glass; the slides are
available on NERC's Archives page.