MARQUETTE, MI-- Glass is no longer being accepted in recycling by the Marquette County Solid Waste Management Authority.
Landfill Director Brad Austin says the main reason is the inability to market the material, as no glass recyclers are nearby. He says another reason is to keep employees safe from broken glass. Austin says since there’s no way to sell it, broken glass has been picked out of the rigid recycling stream and going into the landfill from the start.
“Glass is an inert material. So from an environmental standpoint, as far as the landfill goes, it’s harmless, being that it’s basically sand,” he says.
Austin says it’s important for residents to continue to recycle as much cardboard, plastic, paper, and metal as they can.
“Paper, for example, can produce a landfill gas. Plastics are made of a lot of man-made materials and it takes a long time for those things to break down. So we focused in on those items that we can process here and put to market,” he says.
All glass should be placed in the trash. Austin says the Authority continues to explore markets for glass and if it finds something that’s economically feasible it will look at recycling it.
