Pilot Project Makes Recycling Glass Easier
Glass bottle and jar recycling drop-off locations are available in Girard Borough , Girard Township , Millcreek , North East and Harborcreek and plans for commercial and curbside collection are underway .
BY BERNADETTE WILSON
Asix-month pilot project is bringing free , recyclable glass container collection to more locations throughout Erie County — and from the initial responses , it ’ s meeting a big demand in these communities .
Laura Guncheon , vice president of project management for EMG , says the first Prism Glass Recycling drop-boxes , placed in North East and Harborcreek this winter , were out less than a few hours when residents already began filling them with empty glass bottles and jars . Over the first 63 days of the program , North East collected three loads totaling 10,460 pounds of glass and is well on its way to completing a fourth load . Harborcreek collected two loads totaling 7,680 pounds and is working on its third load as well .
Prism Glass also placed drop-boxes in Girard Borough , Girard and Millcreek Townships , as well as other Erie area communities . To date , residents have contributed 28 tons of recyclable glass bottles and jars over 15 loads . By the end of the 6-month pilot , Guncheon estimates that 80-100 tons of glass containers will have been diverted from the landfill and back into the “ bottle-tobottle ” recycling stream .
Why Recycling Glass Makes Perfect Sense
Glass used for bottles , food containers , perfume and cologne bottles and candle jars doesn ’ t have to be fated to one-time use . Businesses such as CAP Glass Recycling in Mt . Pleasant , Westmoreland County , clean , break down and color-sort the glass into small pieces called cullet . Then glass manufacturers , such as Owens-Illinois , mix the cullet with sand , soda ash , and limestone , heat it until it liquefies and pours it into molds to create new glass containers .
Recycling glass is a win for everyone . Using cullet reduces the demand for raw materials , and it saves energy , lowers plant emissions , and extends the life of glass manufacturing equipment . In fact , the Glass Packaging Institute reports that more than a ton of natural resources are saved for every ton of glass recycled , and the process lowers carbon dioxide emissions by one ton for every six tons of recycled glass used .
Prism Glass , which falls under the Erie Management Group ( EMG ) umbrella , a grouping of companies created by Erie entrepreneur Samuel P . “ Pat ” Black , III , and his daughter Sumi James-Black , considered those benefits too good to pass up . EMG began exploring ways to allow Erie area residents to continue to recycle glass containers after the county eliminated glass from its single-stream recycling .
EMG spent time learning to recognize the barriers to glass recycling that exist in many communities and , in early 2020 , began work on a plan to create a regional ecosystem of glass recycling . Prism was created to offer a way for more Erie County residents to maximize the impact glass recycling has on the local and regional economy .
First Steps
Nick Bruno joined EMG in late 2020 as business development manager , and together , he and Guncheon took the plan for Prism to Erie County Department of Planning and Community Development , the Erie Area Council of Governments , individual municipalities , CAP Glass Recycling and the Glass Recycling Foundation for partnership engagement . “ Prism is a true public-private partnership . We don ’ t have paid contracts with any municipality or organization . The pilot is subsidized by all
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