Arlington County eliminated residential curbside glass recycling earlier this year, but county residents appear to have taken to using glass recycling drop-off locations.
Arlington County says since it debuted its first glass-only collection bins in April, more than a million pounds, or 500 tons, of glass has been collected for recycling. That is the equivalent to the weight of 27 Arlington Transit buses.
There are now five glass recycling drop-off bins in Arlington County:
- Quincy Park, at Washington Boulevard and North Quincy Street
- The Trades Center, at 2700 Taylor Street
- Aurora Hills Community Center, at Branch Library
- Cherrydale Branch Library
- Lee Community Center
Arlington County says the five bins are within two and a half miles of all Arlington County residents.
The glass all goes to a new glass crushing and recycling plant in Fairfax County, where the glass is turned into sand and gravel used in paving, construction and landscaping.
Fairfax County, Alexandria, Prince William County and Arlington County announced a partnership to recycle glass jointly earlier this year. There are about two dozen glass recycling drop-off locations in the Northern Virginia region.
Cities and counties across the country are changing glass recycling programs, because a significant drop in the market value of recycled glass makes it no longer economically sustainable to collect it through residential curbside streams.
Arlington County’s Solid Waste Bureau recently published a report that showed the value of unsorted glass has actually fallen into negative value on the recycling market.
