Environmental Protection by Recycling - blue glass recycling

I was at the recycling center and noticed the attendant pulling the blue bottles out of the bin. Apparently blue is not recycled so our recycling center picks them out and throws them in the garbage. I guess the moral is don't buy beverages that come in blue glass bottles.

Interesting.Here,which is not that far from you,with curbside pickup,no distinction is made as far as glass color goes.I wonder if blue is weeded out at the processing facility.

I've never paid much attention to how much comes in blue glass.Nothing I use seems to.

Maybe at some point I'll call the recycle folks and ask just for the heck of it.

The color of glass accepted may depend up who is the end receiver of the glass. Some places do not accept blue glass, others do. Recyclers in some areas are instructed to place blue glass with green. Blue glass contains iron. Cobalt blue has cobalt added.

Typically, clear, green, and brown are accepted in most areas. There is a greater demand for clear glass. In some areas glass is not accepted at all for recycling.

Companies that collect materials for recycling have been hard hit by the economic downfall. There is currently less demand for materials for recycling, and naturally prices have have dropped dramatically. In some areas where materials are collected for recycling, many of these are practically being given away because of drop in demand and difficulty in getting rid of them. And, this is occurring while the cost to recycle materials is going up.

Consumers are encouraged to continue to put out their recycle bins. Otherwise, everything in the trash goes to the landfill. Recyclers are hopeful that the recycling industry will rebound with the economy.

Our town has had a long history of recycling missteps and wasted public funds. There have been a lot of good intentions but the fact is our small community is located too far away from anyone who purchases recycled material, and the value of the recyclables is less than the trasportation costs.

I've had the recycling center employees saving the blue glass for me for several months . One worker lives 2 doors down from my office so he drops them off on his way home from work (no extra drving). At first I broke them, put them in the rock tumbler and made beach glass. I eventually ran out of people that wanted beach glass so now I'm giving the bottles to people that put them in their garden as decoration. One woman is working on a large bottle tree. Unfortunatley I'm running out of people that want blue glass so I don't know what the next step will be.

It just kills me to watch Planet Green on Sunday morning and keep saying: nope not done here, can't get that, not approved here...