If area residents wished to actually recycle their glass, they had to transport it out of Evansville. Here, Julie Blevins (right) and Ann Basden finish loading a pickup truck full of glass bound for a facility in Posey county, which accepts outside glass as a courtesy. This popular program was for Alvord Neighborhood Association members and residents.
(Tim Jagielo / WNIN News)
It’s a warm late-June Saturday morning, and Julie Blevins and Ann Basden are loading the back of a pickup truck with glass for recycling. The pickup bed is full. Most of the items are alcohol containers, sorted by color.
“Lot of Corona, where’d that come from? I think it’s Memorial Day,” one of them said.
It’s not all theirs though of course. It’s a collection from the surrounding Alvord Boulevard neighborhood, a courtesy put on by the Neighborhood Association they lead. This load is bound for the recycling facility in Posey County.
“They'll take the clear, the brown, the blue,” Blevins said. “Posey County is nice enough that we can bring it to them. We just have to offload it and take it into their facility.”
Why make the drive if glass is accepted every week in Evansville? Mary Allen is on the City Council and with Zero Waste Evansville.
“Currently, we do not have a way to process and receive and recycle glass,” she said. “So technically, it is still in the contract. We have to say that they accept glass in the contract, so they're obligated to, but about 50 tons 40 to 50 tons of glass is sent through the recycle facility to the landfill, currently each month.”
This isn’t news to many city waste customers. In 2012, Allen said the city switched to single-stream recycling. It's convenient for residents, but has serious drawbacks.
“With single stream recycling, we need a lot more infrastructure at our recycle facility to be able to properly process glass to where it's a marketable material and not to contaminate it, which is why we need a separate bunker for drop off.”
And that’s what’s happening. Starting Aug. 2nd, for the first time in 11 years there will be a way for anyone to actually recycle glass in Vanderburgh County.
Vanderburgh County residents can drop glass of all colors Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Tri-State Resource Recovery outside bin. Labels are OK but it should be clean with no lid.
Businesses can drop glass off on Friday.
This isn’t a city program. It’s a partnership with Tri State Resource Recovery and Recycle Services.
Tri-State Resource Recovery will make a small amount per ton. Recycle Services will wait until about 20 tons are gathered in the bin before hauling it away.
All colors of glass will be accepted in this bin at Tri-State Resource Recovery in Evansville, starting Aug. 2. Only food and beverage containers are accepted. They should also be rinsed with no lid. (Tim Jagielo/WNIN News)
All the glass will be sold to Knauf Insulation in Shelbyville to make fiberglass insulation, said Jim Richey with Recycle Services
“So the material that we're able to collect at a drop off location, like what they're starting up in Evansville, is able to stay in state after it's processed and find the finished product made here in the state of Indiana.”
Currently, Knauf must ship glass in from out of state to produce the base material for the fiberglass. This program will simplify the logistics.
This is kind of a rare and even fledgling program. Allen said this is better than a pilot program, but there’s no guarantee for success.
There’s a lot they don’t know. The price of glass fluctuates, and transportation is expensive. It’s also expensive for Tri-State Resource recovery to handle glass in the recycle bin as it is.
“So if we can divert the glass from your recycle bin … and bring it down to our recycle facility … that would be the best case. Otherwise throw it in the trash.”
You read that correctly — it’s better to throw glass away if you can’t bring it to the facility. Still, Allen is hoping the community will make the effort.
“I think people are just used to putting their glass in the single-stream recycle bin at home,” she said. “This is going to take some effort. They’re going to have to haul it down to the recycling center.”
Richey said this is an important project because Indiana as a state, is behind with recycling infrastructure.
“We need to do a better job of recycling. Indianapolis recycles … Fort Wayne Recycles … but Evansville does not.” He said Michigan is better at recycling overall.
If sorted properly, glass is infinitely recyclable and takes less energy to make into new products than creating "virgin" glass, according to theGlass Packaging Institute.
To begin launching this new drop-off program, there will be an informational event 9 a.m. at Tri-Sate Resource Recovery on Friday, July 26. The address is 1511 Harriet St, Evansville. Pull in on Read Street right off of Morgan Avenue.
