Town of Westport Announces Pilot Glass Recycling Program

Public Works Director Peter Ratkiewich announced today that the Town of Westport has launched a Pilot program to separate glass from the single stream recycling. 

The  Department of Public Works (DPW) has provided a special container at the Transfer Station, located at 300 Sherwood Island Connector, where residents can deposit clean glass beverage bottles, juice jars, condiment bottles and food jars. Residents are asked to rinse the glass containers, remove lids or caps, and place them in a separate box or bin from the single stream recycling. The clean glass can be deposited in the separate container during the Transfer Station’s normal operating hours.

Mr. Ratkiewich explained, “The problem with glass in the single stream is that it breaks, and then contaminates paper, cardboard, and other recyclables with broken glass particles. This reduces the market value of all recyclables. Conversely, small bits of paper, bottle caps, straws and other metals contaminate the glass so much that it can’t be effectively recycled, so it either gets used as landfill cover, or is discarded as residual waste. By separating glass from the single stream, contamination is eliminated on both ends, and makes the glass more valuable.”

The separated, clean glass is being directed to a glass recycling facility in Beacon Falls, CT where it is converted to an additive that replaces fly-ash in concrete products and actually makes the concrete stronger. This additive also reduces the carbon footprint of the concrete industry as fly ash is a byproduct of coal burning power plants. The new facility will soon have the capacity to take all the glass generated in the State’s 169 municipalities.

Mr. Ratkiewich stated that Westport is one of five towns in the 14-town Greater Bridgeport Regional Solid Waste Interlocal Committee (GBRSWIC) that are doing a “soft-launch” of the program to work out logistics and procedures. This pilot will be expanded into a full pilot project with the other nine towns in about six months to a year.  “We are working with our partners at Oak Ridge Waste in Shelton to make this program as successful as possible,” he said. “A similar program was implemented in the Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority (HRRA) about a year ago and was a huge success. We aim to duplicate that program.”

First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker added, “This is an important step in making our recycling program more effective, and reducing the portion of our solid waste that is going to landfills. Westport is proud to be part of the group leading the program that we hope to see implemented across the whole region, and the entire State”