Thanks to a grant from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management in the vicinity of $200,000, Tuscaloosa was able to purchase a glass pulverizer to “tumble and crush recyclable glass containers into glass mulch or sand that can be used in a number of industrial and decorative applications,” according to a recent press release.
The cost of these pulverizers have been prohibitively expensive for other counties.
“Currently, Tuscaloosa is the only community in Alabama to offer glass recycling,” said Ashley Chambers, City of Tuscaloosa Environmental Educator.
The only other facilities that accept glass are Target stores which, since the start of its recycling program in 2010, have accepted household glass items.
According to data collected by the Glass Packaging Institute, household food-and-beverage glass is 100 percent recyclable. Compounded with the fact that recycled materials can be substituted for up to 95 percent of raw materials, glass recycling programs have a huge potential to cut down household waste. This also means that every ton of recycled glass saves nearly a ton in other raw materials that might not be recyclable.
“For every bottle that’s recycled, that’s one bottle that doesn’t go into the landfill,” said Deidre Stalnaker, communications director for the City of Tuscaloosa.
The city has high hopes for its new program, which is already showing promise.
“We’ve already gotten a really good showing,” Stalnaker said. “I know that when I went out there on the first day, they had to put in a new bin because the other one was full.”
In the near future, the city may install more glass collection locations. At the present, patrons can go to the aforementioned facility located at 3440 Kauloosa Ave. to drop off their glass recyclables. Items must be sorted by color and relatively clean, although caps, corks and labels can be left on.
