COVID-19 Threatens Glass Recycling Services
Cities across the Southwest are stopping some drop-off recycling services, deemed nonessential during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mesa adjusted its services last month. And Monday, Santa Fe, New Mexico, said it would stop drop-off services.
Drop-off centers are places where items that can’t go through the regular recycling process get collected and reprocessed — items like glass bottles from restaurants and bars.
Blake King owns a small glass recycling business he started in 2013 to cover the Phoenix market. King collects the glass, makes sure it’s clean and sends it out to a recycling facility and, eventually, to manufacturers that produce items from that glass.
“By the time that bottle gets from your table to the recycling facility, it’s probably in a million pieces. And so for them to try to remove that out of that stream, is not only really expensive but near impossible," said King.
The city of Santa Fe has announced the closure of all drop-off recycling sites and the suspension of bulky waste collection and drop-off trash services considered nonessential during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Glass will not be accepted in curbside recycling during the drop-off site closures. The changes are due to concerns about sanitation and strained resources, Santa Fe city officials said.
King says in a normal month, his company diverts an average of 700 tons from southwestern landfills, but as the coronavirus halts trash collection locations, that number will drop dramatically.
