DeKalb ends glass recycling pickup, starts drop-off program
DeKalb County’s government is asking residents to stop putting glass in their curbside recycling containers.
Instead, those who want to recycle their glass can bring it to any of 16 locations across the county.
The new glass recycling process goes into effect July 17 after it was approved by the DeKalb Commission on Tuesday.
Glass should be separated from other recyclable materials, according to the county. Glass too often shatters in recycling containers, ruining other materials like cardboard, paper and aluminum.
For residents who don’t want to sort their glass and drive it to a recycling center, they should throw it away with the rest of their non-recyclable trash, according to the county.
“DeKalb joins a growing nationwide trend to adopt the glass sort-separation process in order to preserve the integrity of recycled glass,” said DeKalb County Sanitation Division spokeswoman Pauline Andrea.
Glass collected by the county hasn't been recycled since 2015. That's when the county's recycling company, Pratt Industries, opened a facility in Conyers that doesn't process glass. The glass ended up in a landfill.
The county recently contracted with Strategic Materials, which has a plant in College Park that recycles glass. Strategic Materials will pay DeKalb $30 for every ton of glass the county drops off, Andrea said.
Residents can drop off glass at the following locations:
- Blackburn Park, 3493 Ashford Dunwoody Road
- Brooke Run Park, 4770 N. Peachtree Road
- Dunwoody Library, 5339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road
- Exchange Park Recreation Center, 2771 Columbia Drive
- Fire Station No. 12, 5323 Roberts Drive
- Flat Shoals Library, 4022 Flat Shoals Parkway
- Hairston Crossing Library, 4911 Redan Road
- Mason Mill Park, 1340 McConnell Drive
- Porter Sanford Performing Arts Center, 3181 Rainbow Drive
- Redan Recreation Center, 1839 Phillips Road
- Salem-Panola Library, 5137 Salem Road
- Seminole Road Landfill, 5203 Clevemont Road
- Stonecrest Library, 3123 Klondike Road
- Target-Edgewood location, 1275 Caroline St. NE
- Tucker Recreation Center, 4898 LaVista Road
- Wade Walker Park, 5585 Rockbridge Road
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
