Dive Brief:

• DeKalb County, GA, will stop accepting glass material as a part of its single-stream curbside collection program and instead establish drop-off centers around the county, as announced in a press release.
• The program, in partnership with Strategic Materials as their sole glass recycling processor, comes after over 10 years of single-stream collection in the county. Beginning July 17, residents can go to one of 16 drop-off points, most of which are at libraries or public parks and recreation centers.
• The recycled glass will be used to manufacture fiberglass or new glass containers, according to the county. Only certain colors of glass will be accepted and the county is not collecting pane glass, light bulbs or ceramic glass from the drop-off centers.

Dive Insight:

DeKalb County, which includes parts of Atlanta, joins the ranks of other regions across the south which have switched from curbside glass pickup to collecting recycled glass from drop-off centers. New Orleans suspended glass pickup in January, after only one year, and switched to accepting glass at a drop-off center once per month. In Knoxville, TN, drop-off centers saw a 63% increase in volume of collected glass in just the first month of 2017. After eliminating curbside glass collection, Houston also partnered with Strategic Materials to establish drop-off cites for the commodity.

Given the cost, high contamination rate and safety risks inherent with curbside glass recycling, it's no wonder that cities and counties around the country are deciding to stop picking up glass. Glass can also be a tricky commodity to manage. By taking the guesswork out of glass collection and switching to a drop-off program, local governments can save themselves a logistical headache.

Georgia has a handful of plants that manufacture glass or fiberglass, and facilities for secondary glass processing, and it's clear that movers and shakers in the state care about recycling the commodity. Given the relative scarcity of plants that can handle mixed glass, and the success of other municipalities that have partnered with private firms to handle glass, there is reason to think that DeKalb County's soon-to-be program with Strategic Materials will prove successful.