On July 1, 2019, glass picked up by the city in the brown residential recycling bins was no longer recycled.
To recycle glass, residents were asked to drop glass bottles and jars at one of the four glass recycling locations. At that time, with only four locations in a city of nearly 300,000, many people didn’t find that too convenient.
However, the Greensboro Field Operations department just added seven new glass recycling locations to bring the present total up to 19, which means there should be a glass recycling location near you.
The seven new glass recycling locations are:
- Tiny House Community Development, 1310 W. Gate City Blvd.
- Hemphill Library, 2301 W. Vandalia Road
- Fire Station 17, 6405 Old Oak Ridge Road
- Guilford Park Presbyterian Church, 2416 Lawndale Dr.
- Union Coffee Company, 1119 E. Wendover Ave.
- Fire Station 63, 4306 Burlington Road
- Craft Recreation Center, 3911 Yanceyville St.
Glass taken to one of the glass recycling locations is recycled. Glass placed in the brown residential recycling bin is taken to the landfill.
In fact, according to Field Operations, about 36 percent of what is collected from the brown recycling bins is trash that goes to the landfill and the Field Operations Waste Reduction and Recycling team is looking for volunteers to help reduce that percentage.
Volunteers will be trained and can sign up to work with a city employee to inspect and tag residential recycling bins that contain items, such as glass, not acceptable in the recycling program. There will be two days each month that those who have been trained can choose to volunteer to work from 7 a.m. to noon.
Those interesting in learning more about recycling and volunteering to help can sign up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0c45abaa2ca4fcce9-recycling
A helpful hint for those who choose to recycle glass by taking it to a glass recycling location: Only glass should be placed in the blue glass recycling bins and not plastic or paper grocery bags or cardboard boxes.
Signs need to be posted at every glass recycling place stating NO lids and also stating that glass must be rinsed and clean. EVERY time I put my glass jars into the bins, there are jars that have not been rinsed and have lids on them. For instance, more than once, have seen jars containing remaining spaghetti sauce. Ugh. Please post signs.
John, thank you for sharing this info! Hopefully we’ll see a great decrease of trash in recycling through these efforts.
Unless you are downing a six-pack or two daily, I fail to see how the costs of delivering glass waste justifies it. I drive 10-11 miles RT to recycle glass. Does the cost of delivering it, picking it up, recycling, etc., justify the benefit? I don’t think so.
If the city loses money doing it, how would individuals do it any more cheaply? In New Jersey, the State grinds the glass, and adds it to paving asphalt. It makes the roads reflective at night, but wears out the tires more quickly.
Fire Station 17 is at 6405 Old Oak Ridge Road.
Thanks. I corrected the address.
Funny thing about the city wanting volunteers to inspect recycling bins not too far in the past the city had 4 employees who worked for waste management that did exactly that very thing just wondering why that stopped
Please make sure that everything we send to recycling gets recycled. We have to collect in plastic bags but we’ve heard that.staff do not even check to see what in the bags but toss them in trash after we made the effort to collect and send it to them. If they can toss in the trash, they can check the contents!! They too have a responsibility as employees. They are there to do that job well.
We also need to be able to recycle All plastics! We need to do better!