topic Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles? in Community Chat

How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

NickNack — Thu, 23 May 2019 11:46:47 GMT

This may sound ridiculous, but I can't figure out how to put glass bottles in my recycle bin without them breaking. I have put them in grocery bags and put them in, but some of them still break. I know they will break when the trash pick-up people dump them in their truck. Are they even recyclable when they're broken?

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

Krimpette — Thu, 23 May 2019 11:51:58 GMT

I put glass bottles in my recycle bin all the time and they never break. I just set them in the bin along with my other recyclables. Maybe it's because we can co-mingle our glass with plastic in the same bin.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

NickNack — Thu, 23 May 2019 11:55:39 GMT

@Krimpette wrote:
I put glass bottles in my recycle bin all the time and they never break. I just set them in the bin along with my other recyclables. Maybe it's because we can co-mingle our glass with plastic in the same bin.

@Krimpette I can't really set them in there unless I've got a fairly full bin. Mine is a regular large trash bin size, which is the same size as my trash can. It holds all of my recyclables. They aren't separated. This has been a problem for a long time. I just don't want them to break.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

riley1 — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:00:16 GMT

I've been recycling for many years (co-mingle) and don't have a problem with glass breakage. If I'm tossing light bulbs, I put them in the cardboard sleeve they came in.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

JeanLouiseFinch — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:01:50 GMT

@NickNack wrote:
This may sound ridiculous, but I can't figure out how to put glass bottles in my recycle bin without them breaking. I have put them in grocery bags and put them in, but some of them still break. I know they will break when the trash pick-up people dump them in their truck. Are they even recyclable when they're broken?

Don’t stress over it, @NickNack. All your care and precautions aren’t going to matter once the trash collectors get their hands on them, but then even at the recycling plant with all the tossing that happens. Recycling glass bottles and jars doesn’t mean washing and reusing the actual piece. All glasses gets sorted by color at the recycling plant. Then it gets washed, crushed, and melted down before being formed into something new, whether it’s a jar, a bottle, a vase, etc.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

Tootie15 — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:04:27 GMT

We keep a smaller tote in our garage for our everyday recycling items. Once it is full we dump it into our larger (trash size) recycling tote. We have never had an issue with glass bottles breaking. Like Krimpette said, maybe because we have plastic and cans mixed in.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

NickNack — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:04:27 GMT

@JeanLouiseFinch wrote:
@NickNack wrote:
This may sound ridiculous, but I can't figure out how to put glass bottles in my recycle bin without them breaking. I have put them in grocery bags and put them in, but some of them still break. I know they will break when the trash pick-up people dump them in their truck. Are they even recyclable when they're broken?
Don’t stress over it, @NickNack. All your care and precautions aren’t going to matter once the trash collectors get their hands on them, but then even at the recycling plant with all the tossing that happens. Recycling glass bottles and jars doesn’t mean washing and reusing the actual piece. All glasses gets sorted by color at the recycling plant. Then it gets washed, crushed, and melted down before being formed into something new, whether it’s a jar, a bottle, a vase, etc.

Thanks @JeanLouiseFinch . I know they don't recycle the actual bottles, but thought they might be sorted by actual people. I thought broken glass could be dangerous to the people. I'll just quit worrying about it.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

NickNack — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:06:05 GMT

@Tootie15 wrote:
We keep a smaller tote in our garage for our everyday recycling items. Once it is full we dump it into our larger (trash size) recycling tote. We have never had an issue with glass bottles breaking. Like Krimpette said, maybe because we have plastic and cans mixed in.

That's exactly what I do @Tootie15 . I still hear the glass breaking when I dump it into the larger recycling bin. I guess I'll just quit worrying about it.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

JeanLouiseFinch — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:10:44 GMT

@NickNack wrote:
@JeanLouiseFinch wrote:
@NickNack wrote:
This may sound ridiculous, but I can't figure out how to put glass bottles in my recycle bin without them breaking. I have put them in grocery bags and put them in, but some of them still break. I know they will break when the trash pick-up people dump them in their truck. Are they even recyclable when they're broken?
Don’t stress over it, @NickNack. All your care and precautions aren’t going to matter once the trash collectors get their hands on them, but then even at the recycling plant with all the tossing that happens. Recycling glass bottles and jars doesn’t mean washing and reusing the actual piece. All glasses gets sorted by color at the recycling plant. Then it gets washed, crushed, and melted down before being formed into something new, whether it’s a jar, a bottle, a vase, etc.

Thanks @JeanLouiseFinch . I know they don't recycle the actual bottles, but thought they might be sorted by actual people. I thought broken glass could be dangerous to the people. I'll just quit worrying about it.

I’m sure there are people involved in the sorting process, but there are safety rules in place where they are required to wear gloves. Im guessing, probably a style that covers the forearm, or the person might wear a coverall that protects their arms. Just a thought.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

catter70 — Thu, 23 May 2019 12:17:11 GMT

Where I live, we have 96 gallon containers for recycle and trash. I just put the glass in as gently as possible. Sometimes I tilt the can towards me and kinda slide the glass in. We also have co mingle of plastic, paper, cardboard and glass so that cushions it to a degree.Those trash bins are picked up by a truck with forks and just dumped into their truck so I'm thinking they are not in good shape by the time they get to their destination.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

Carmie — Thu, 23 May 2019 13:19:56 GMT

I just toss my glass items in the huge recycle container. I never had anything break. I usually have a bunch of cardboard and junk mail on the bottom....maybe that helps cushion the fall.

I also wash and reuse the really nice glass jars if they have screw on lids.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

Suziepeach — Thu, 23 May 2019 13:36:41 GMT

Waste Management doesn't allow glass in their recyle anymore, neither does our trash service (not WM). Where we take our recycling has 3 huge bins, one for clear, one for brown and one for green glass. From there I don't know where they take all the glass.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

redwingsgal — Thu, 23 May 2019 14:36:58 GMT

We do it all the time. Just lay them in the bin carefully. We have to drive to our local dump to recycle and never break any. And yes, broken glass is recycleable.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

Lipstickdiva — Thu, 23 May 2019 14:40:10 GMT

I drop mine in all the time and none of them break.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

ScarletDove — Thu, 23 May 2019 14:52:32 GMT

@NickNack Try not to worry about breakage....you have done the best and most important part, recycled items that many irresponsible people throw in the trash or even litter. The recycling area of your county/state knows how to deal with breakage. Pat yourself on the back for doing the right thing by recycling!

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

Nightowlz — Thu, 23 May 2019 15:33:28 GMT

We only recycle cardboard because DH can drop those off next door at work. Our City has made it difficult to recycle. They don't want to deal with it IMO. They bought trucks & gave all the people here tubs to put their recyclable materials in but they could not get it figured out so they stopped doing that & went back to regular trash pickup.

They have a recycle center in town you can leave stuff if you can ever catch them open when they are suppose to be. DH got tired of going to drop stuff off when they were suppose to be open but nobody was there. Cannot leave it if they are not open because they have cameras & will fine you?

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

lovescats — Thu, 23 May 2019 15:43:33 GMT

Where I live glass is no longer accepted for curbside recycling. Some communities are working to get drop off locations for the glass where it be taken directly to a glass factory but not all.

Broken glass can cause the whole truckload to be containmintated and unrecyclable.

Also only 1 and 2 plastic bottles are accepted. If the top is bigger than bottom then they don't want that either. China has stopped taking a lot of stuff. Our recycling calendar had a lot of changes this year.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

alarmclock — Thu, 23 May 2019 15:52:43 GMT

Our trash company does not take glass any longer. They say that when it breaks, it contaminates the other items.

There is more money in metal and plastic than in glass.

Remember the old advertising that encouraged us to buy glass?

GLASS RECYCLES.

And now, they don't want us to use it or to recycle it.

But the oceans are full of plastic.

Brilliant.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

Carmie — Thu, 23 May 2019 16:07:11 GMT

I wish we would go back to the days of returning glass bottles to the manufacturers and they sterilized and reused them.

It doesn't make sense to recycle glass back into another glass container.

Re: How Do You Recycle Glass Bottles?

NickNack — Thu, 23 May 2019 16:07:29 GMT

Thank you @lovescats and @alarmclock for the information about broken glass contaminating the entire truckload of recyclables. I'm going to have to research this a little bit more and then decide if I want to recycle my glass.