Alpharetta will continue to recycle glass for its residents, but it will cost them a little more after a city council vote earlier this week.
Members of council in north Fulton County voted on Monday, April 10 to implement “Option C” for glass recycling, which continues curbside glass recycling, but at the cost of an extra $3 per-month for residents.
This was the third option of a recent online survey that the city conducted. The other two options were residents putting glass in the trash or taking it to a collection center themselves on their own dime and time.
RELATED: Recycle your paint, bulbs and more for free in Atlanta on April 15
RELATED: Metro Atlanta recyclers reject glass, ship it to landfills
The move was Alpharetta’s response to the dangers of single-stream recycling — when paper, plastic and glass are put in the same container. Broken shards of glass can damage recycling equipment and injure workers.
Container Recycling Institute explains: "In single-stream programs, it is virtually impossible to prevent glass from breaking as it goes to the curb, is dumped in the truck, gets compacted, gets dumped on the tipping floor of the material recovery facilities, is repeatedly driven over by forklifts, and is dumped on conveyor belts to be processed."
In simpler terms, when glass gets broken, it contaminates other recyclables and in-turn, those contaminated materials end up in a landfill instead of being recycled.
"Now we are all learning that single-stream recycling may be convenient for citizens, but it comes with a higher cost that recycling companies can no longer bear," James Drinkard, Alpharetta's City Administrator, said in a statement.
NORTH FULTON: Roswell farmer's market opens on Saturday
Under the new set of recycling standards for Alpharetta, residents will be provided with an additional 18-gallon plastic bin where glass can be placed. On the normally scheduled collection day, residents will place the bin at the curb along with other trash and recyclables. The extra $3 per month will be included in residents’ waste service bill.
The other impact the vote has is that trucks will be added to these waste service routes, making neighborhood streets a bit more crowded on collection days.
RELATED:
About the Author
