Starkville Recycling has begun accepting glass at several drop-off locations around the Starkville area.
Eric Parker, chair of the Solid Waste and Recycling Committee, said right now the acceptance of glass is basically a pilot program.
“Right now there are about five or six different drop-off locations for glass around Starkville,” Parker said. “One of the drop-off locations is at Starkville Recycling.”
Parker said the reason Starkville Recycling has not always collected glass is because it can be a safety hazard to people.
“The problem is that glass is really hard to sort with other wastes,” Parker said. “It is also a really big safety hazard to the employees.”
Parker also said now there is a crushing machine that can crush the glass into sand, thus making glass easier to handle.
Nisreen Cain, Green Starkville founder, said that another reason that glass has not been recycled yet in Starkville is because options for reuse are very limited in our community.
“The option to recycle glass or turn it into something that can be used for other purposes like landscaping is a very attractive option,” Cain said.
There has been a glass drop-off location at Synergetics on Highway 12 since the beginning of last year thanks to Green Starkville, Cain said.
“This effort was sponsored by BluBox Recycling,” Cain said. “The recycling drives were very successful. Some of the drives collected over two tons of glass. The glass was then crushed at the BluBox Recycling center for use in landscaping.”
Cain said she believes the demand from the community has finally made them take the decision to accept glass. The liability insurance for recycling glass is expensive for the company, which is another reason why Starkville Recycling has not done it before.
Many stores around Starkville have already been recycling glass even though Starkville Recycling has not always done it.
“Restaurant Tyler participated in the glass recycling drives several times, and had a truck full of wine glasses and beer bottles,” Cain said. “The Savvy Grape allows their customers to bring in glass that they would then take to one of the recycling centers.”
Dandy Doodlez on Main Street accepts glass, especially colored glass, which is used in the arts and crafts they have in the store. The store has an oven where employees melt the glass which then can be used for multiple purposes.
Lindsey Westbook, senior biological engineering major and former MSU Recycling Club treasurer, said she thinks it is great that Starkville Recycling is accepting glass but said she does not believe there are drop-off locations on campus.
“As far as I know, though, there are currently no bins for collecting glass on campus besides in laboratories where there are broken glass containers,” Westbrook said.
She said without on-campus bins, students will have to go out of their way to recycle glass.
She said with the addition of glass recycling in Starkville, hopefully bins for glass will soon be seen on campus.