SWACO commits to glass recycling in Ohio

While some municipal programs have questioned their commitment to collecting and recycling glass, the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) says it intends to continue building a circular economy in part through glass recycling.

In an early-June message to its customers, the Grove City, Ohio-based waste agency says a given container can go from the recycling cart to the processing facility to the manufacturer and back to the store shelf in as little as 30 days.

SWACO, which provides waste and recycling services in numerous communities and townships near Columbus, Ohio, points to several companies within the state that help close the glass recycling loop.

Among those firms is O-I Glass, which is based in Perrysburg, Ohio, and has a manufacturing facility in Zanesville, Ohio. Some of the firm's approximately 1,000 employees in the state make bottles for the spirits industry, using recycled glass cullet as a feedstock.

In Milan, Ohio, SWACO says fiberglass insulation producer Johns Manville uses recycled glass in its building products.

Another Ohio-based company, Rumpke Waste and Recycling, makes glass recycling possible via the operation of its large-scale glass beneficiation plant in Dayton, Ohio.

Rumpke is engaged in crushing and processing 5,000 tons of glass per month to be used by any number of Ohio and other companies making glass products, SWACO says. About two-thirds of the glass leaving the Rumpke plant goes to fiberglass makers, while the rest goes to the glass container industry.

SWACO says Rumpke's 2004 decision to invest in the facility was "critical because, while the demand for recycled glass is robust, the actual recycling presents some challenges."

Glass recycling needs such support, according to the agency, in part because glass is heavy and thus relatively expensive to transport and in part because inconsistent government policies on glass collection create uncertainty about the endeavor's future.

"While these challenges can be overcome, misconceptions have led some communities across the United States in the past decade to stop accepting glass in their recycling programs," SWACO says. "That's typically followed by a public outcry; neither manufacturers nor consumers want their glass to go to landfills," the agency adds.

SWACO points to another investment announced by Rumpke this February it says will make a difference: its construction of a new processing facility in Columbus designed to increase the company's processing capacity from 150,000 tons of materials per year to 250,000 tons.

"All of that bodes well for the future of glass recycling, but success also depends on the willingness of consumers to put that glass into the recycling bin rather than the trash can," SWACO says. "In Franklin County, households currently capture and recycle about 50 percent of the glass they use, but maybe by working together [we] can boost that number."