Glass getting ever harder to recycle

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Recently, Swift County Environmental Services sent a semi load of clear glass to Anchor Glass Container Corporation in Shakopee for disposal. The driver was told they couldn’t take it. That was a dismaying surprise. Anchor had always taken clear class.
“They rejected the load because there is no demand. Their stockpile was tremendous, too,” Swift County Environmental Services Director Scott Collins told the board of county commissioners at their Feb. 1 meeting.
One of the significant challenges Swift County Environmental Services faces is the amount of glass it collects and what to do with it.
In recent years, recycling aluminum, glass, plastic, and paper have all been increasingly challenging as the markets for these products fluctuates or fades away. Glass has been particularly difficult as the market for it has disappeared.
As of Oct. 1, 2020, Swift County started charging 7 cents per pound for disposing of green and brown glass. After years of putting the bottles in their recyclable bins, green and brown bottles were now considered garbage. Clear glass could still be recycled though the market for it was “marginal,” Collins told commissions in September 2020.
Those who immediately felt the increase were business owners, such as bars, who produce large amount of garbage and have it picked up by a hauler.
“Brown glass is the most common glass out there,” Collins told commissioners at their Feb. 1 meeting. “Coors and Bud Light are the two most popular beers.” Both come in brown bottles.  “It is ridiculous why we can’t find a market,” he said. It is now going to landfills.
 
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