Letter: We need to find ways to recycle glass again

Ormond Beach Observer
Opinion

Glass shouldn't be in a landfill

Dear Editor:

The city of Ormond Beach recently stopped accepting glass as recyclable. This bothers me greatly. For over 26 years, I have been paying for recycling and that included glass containers.

Then I find that not only will glass no longer be accepted for recycling, but all along it was not being recycled and sent to the dump. I would also like to review the contract with the recycler and see if the contract allows them to stop accepting glass. Some communities still accept glass. Why is that the case if there is no market for the recycled glass? I suspect that the recyclers want to only recycle products that make a larger profit for them, but I think they should take the less profitable products as part of the contract.

I have no experience with the recycling industry, and I don’t think we should even or ever consider sending our waste to other countries like China to deal with. The manufacturers should bear the cost of recycling or charge a deposit like many communities still require. I remember when I was a kid, we did many fundraisers by collecting discarded drink bottles along roadsides and returning for deposit to be washed and reused.

I suspect if it is true that it costs more to use recycled glass that the full cost of producing new glass is not correctly calculated taking into account energy, transportation and environmental costs, and some of the expense is offset by government subsidies to the energy companies and producers to make this so.

I think we could look at other uses for used glass containers like reuse at home, crush for landscape material, grind into concrete pavement or use to replenish eroded beaches. There are beaches where discarded glass has been placed that have become tourist attractions for their unique beauty. Glass does not continue to pollute as plastic and other materials do for many years to come. It is very easy to sterilize and reuse for food storage containers and is safer to use than plastic.

Let’s put together a team of concerned people, engineers, scientist and entrepreneurs to come up with creative ways to recycle and reuse glass so we can continue to use it cost effectively and safely into the future and to help the environment.

Now remind me again why we are putting glass in a landfill?

Tim Grigsby

Ormond Beach

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