Solid Waste Superintendent S. Johnson states that, "What we're doing right now isn't really recycling." That is right. Why then did I think I was recycling when I dutifully sorted out my glass from the trash and threw it into Headwaters Cooperative Recycling's binnies? While I was disappointed that the City of Bozeman will stop collecting glass I was more disappointed to learn it wasn't even recycled when it was collected.
I visited the Headwaters Cooperative Recycling, Inc. website and found that:
It takes approximately 1 million years for a glass bottle to break down in a landfill.
In the U.S. today, 34% of all glass containers are recycled.
Most bottles and jars contain at least 25% recycled glass.
Glass never wears out - it can be recycled forever.
Glass containers save 9 gallons of fuel (oil) for every ton of glass recycled.
One million years is a long time for that bottle of wine from last night's dinner to sit in the Bozeman landfill waiting to decompose. The Chronicle cites expense and lack of market as well as use of energy for reasons why glass recycling isn't economically feasible. Why then does the Headwaters website state that recycling glass saves energy and fuel?
What is the solution? My family has decided to stop purchasing glass when we can substitute it for #1 or #2 plastic bottles that are recyclable here in Bozeman (at least I hope those aren't going to the landfill too!). What glass we do purchase we aren't throwing away. Glass jars of all shapes and sizes can be reused to store food, for drinking glasses, for art projects, and a wide range of other uses. I guess sometimes the answer isn't recycling. It's Reuse.
Does anyone have any long term solutions to the lack of recycling options here in Bozeman?
4 comments:
YNP has an extensive recycling program. That accepts glass. What do they do with theirs?
I'm new to Bozeman...I'm from Ithaca, NY, where we have a great recycling program... it was good and just recently got a lot better. So, I'm pretty horrified about the no-glass recycling thing. (Mayor Bloomberg of NYC also discontinued their glass recycling program, and he doesn't even have the "Montana has a low population that's very spread out" excuse... he just thought it wasn't "economical.")
Well, here's what I'm wondering about. Glass recycling is definitely good (as you point out very well)... but wouldn't it be even more efficient to sanitize and reuse glass bottles? (I'm thinking principally beer bottles here; wine, too, in wine-producing regions like back home in NY.) I mean, it obviously takes a lot more energy to crush and melt down the glass, then reform it into bottles, than it would to simply wash them at high temperatures and relabel. I'm pretty sure this is what they do all over the less-developed world, where they can't necessarily waste the resources to unnecessarily recycle...and where you can still get soda in glass bottles, which is really more gratifying anyway. So, clearly, this solution would have its own set of logistical issues, but I've read the reasons why glass recycling isn't deemed feasible for Bozeman, and I wonder if this kind of approach down the line would be a possible locally-implementable solution (or partial solution) to the dilemma.
In the meantime, aluminum cans seem like the best beer alternative, but I have issues with aluminum, the more I think about it. I mean, I've never known any local beer being produced in cans anyway, and local is what it's all about, but it goes much beyond this... Aluminum is certainly very recyclable, and uses very little energy to recycle, as opposed to the production of virgin aluminum, which is among the largest use of energy in the world (seriously!). So recycling aluminum is very important. BUT... there are these crazy health regulations by the FDA that mean ONLY virgin aluminum can be used for food products. Seriously! If you check the Renolds Wrap packaging or website, they make this very clear, aluminum foil and beverage cans are ALL made of non-recycled aluminum. I bought some recycled aluminum foil from the Co-op and if you look all over the packaging, you'll see there are no references whatsoever to using it with food... So, basically, what's going on here? All our recycled cans are going into automobiles... so, essentially, by buying then recycling cans, we're SUBSIDIZING aluminum for the automobile manufacturers... It's basically being extracted from the ground to build automobiles, by way of our cans, with us paying the tremendous cost of the initial processing. It's certainly better than everyone using virgin aluminum for everything, but it's not quite as comforting as recycling our cans back into cans in a more fundamentally resource-neutral cycle.
Believe it or not, I tried to keep my comments concise... sorry, clearly I have strong thoughts on this subject! Thanks for your discussion of the matter... Bozeman, like Ithaca, seems like a well-intentioned place, and I appreciate people in both who are striving to improve their cities.
David, you make great points and I knew nothing about the situation with aluminum. Now I want to know more!
I do agree that recycling in general should be the last option, only done if you can't reuse the item or dare I say reduce use in the first place.
I'd love to continue this conversation further. Your comment was a reminder to me that the recycling situation in Bozeman has changed once again and I should post an update. I also know of a local business that is using glass bottles to make beautiful tiles for houses.
Now I have some posting to do and hope to connect with you again David about these issues.
Need a new recycling/landfill manager that has motivation to patner with Headwater Helena company to recycle glass - really - Helena is not that far away and looks like they have a great program
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